America Makes Reveals Winners of QTIME Project Call

America Makes and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) reports the winners of a recent project call funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Manufacturing Technology Office (OSD ManTech), worth a total of $5M. The project call, Quality Test and Inspection Methods Expediency (QTIME), focused on the use of non-destructive inspection (NDI) techniques for additive manufacturing (AM) processes, specifically laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) and directed energy deposition (DED).

Also, the project call aims to explore in-situ and ex-situ NDI applications for inspecting large and complex parts. Released in May 2025, the proposal consisted of three topic areas; five awards were anticipated. This project call sought mature, near-commercial NDI technologies ready for real-world deployment.

“Projects like QTIME highlight the invaluable contributions of our members, who steadily advance and mature additive manufacturing,” says Ben DiMarco, technology transition director at America Makes. “We are honored to collaborate with them and confident that their work will enable future innovations in both in-situ and ex-situ monitoring and inspection, accelerating AM progress across the Department of Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration, and NASA.”

Following are the award winners and related topic areas:

Topic 1: Rapid, Cost-effective Methods for Non-destructive Inspection of Large AM Parts

Awardee 1 team lead is Honeywell International. Awardee 2 team lead is Northrop Grumman Systems with a project team from GE Aerospace and Pinnacle Industrial X-Ray Laboratory.

Topic 2: Rapid, Cost-effective Methods for Inspection and Qualification of Complex AM Parts

Awardee 1 team lead is Applied Science & Technology Research Organization of America, with a project team from: Applied Optimization, The Pennsylvania State University—Applied Research Laboratory, Florida State University, Colorado School of Mines, Honeywell Aerospace, and Lockheed Martin. Awardee 2 team lead is RTX Technology Research Center, with a project team from Pratt & Whitney, Intact Solutions, and Velo3D.

Topic 3: Industry Transition Team (ITT)

The team lead is ASTM International Advanced Manufacturing Division, with a project team from Boeing, Lockheed Martin, SAE International, Baker Hughes, and Wohlers Associates.

Project teams will report on their progress at the America Makes Technical Review and Exchange and other industry events during the execution phase of the program.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.