Adaptive, Velocity-Sensing Receiver for In-Line Inspection of Additive Manufactured Aerospace Parts

An increasing number of safety-critical aerospace components are being produced by additive manufacturing (AM). Specific NASA missions with AM components include the Artemis Program#39;s Orion Spacecraft and the Space Launch System. Reliable qualification of finished AM parts is needed for safety-critical aerospace applications, as only fully inspected parts can be certified for flight. In a previous NASA SBIR project, we demonstrated the feasibility of meeting this need by applying laser ultrasonic testing (LUT) for nondestructive evaluation of each AM deposited layer in real time as it is formed. This in-line inspection qualifies the part layer-by-layer, directs defect removal during the manufacturing process, and ensures qualified finished parts that require no further testing. In this project we are developing a new type of laser ultrasonic sensor that will greatly improve the state of the art in inspection performance, leading to improved suppression of mechanical and acoustical disturbances, and also enabling the implementation of a simpler and more agile beam setup and probe design. Such performance improvements will escalate the motivation for AM stakeholders to include the use of LUT in in-line inspection. The Phase II tasks are anticipated to result in enhanced signal processing algorithms and software, a more agile probe, faster adaptive crystal response, and effective integration of LUT in-line inspection into a commercial AM machine.