Lakshmi Reddi, Dean for the College of Engineering at New Mexico State University, addresses the audience at the 2021 QCAM Kick-Off meeting. (NMSU Photo)

The QCAM consortium met for the first time last month in Las Cruces, NM. Partners from across the US visited the city of the Crosses to meet with Principal Inversitagor and Director of QCAM, Ehasn Dehghan-Niri. 

The main goal of the Consortium enabling In- and Ex-Situ-Quality Control of Additive Manufacturing (QCAM) is to establish a sustainable pipeline of under-represented students in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) from Minority Serving Institutes with advanced knowledge and experience to serve the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Agency (NNSA) National Labs and Plants.

A new generation of materials and manufacturing processes require the development of new Nondestructive Testing (NDT) methods for quality assessment. An example is Additive Manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing. According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), ex-situ (e.g. after the process is done) test methods of parts made by AM using conventional NDT techniques are still emerging [1]. Polymer- and metallic-based AM are developing in several applications for building complex components in power, automotive, oil and gas, and aerospace industries. There are several defects and anomalies that can occur during the AM processes (e.g. cracks, porosities, and lack of adhesion). There is a significant push in the field of quality control and, in particular NDT, to develop new techniques that can overcome the limitations of traditional methods for quality control, defect detection, and characterization in AM parts. The main goal of this consortium is to establish a sustainable pipeline of under-represented students from Native American, African American, and Hispanic serving institutes to the National Nuclear Security Agency (NNSA) laboratories. Three minority-serving universities including 1. New Mexico State University (lead and a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI)), 2. Navajo Technical University (NTU) (a Tribal University (TCU)), and 3. Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) (a Historically Black University (HBCU)) will develop a sustainable workforce pipeline with advanced knowledge and skills required for in- and ex-situ-quality control of polymer and metallic AM components.