Imagine if capturing an X-ray was as fast and simple as taking a digital photo. Now imagine being able to capture high-speed radiography videos with the same relative ease. 

These days 3-D printing is a fairly well-known concept, but in the design and Quality Assurance worlds, 3-D printing — aka Additive Manufacturing (AM) — is still in its infancy. There aren’t many policies guiding AM efforts at NASA, other government organizations or in industry, but the AM community is working hard to change that.

In late June, Dr. Ed Generazio, Office of Safety and Mission Assurance Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) program manager, received a NASA Distinguished Service Medal for his exemplary work in NDE for the agency.

NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance’s Nondestructive Evaluation program is leading a variety of agency initiatives to ensure the successful qualification of Additive Manufacturing products for deployment on future NASA missions.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office granted NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) program a patent for its Electric Field Quantitative Measurement System and Method. The patent covers both the Electric Field Imaging sensor and the methods developed by Edward Generazio, NDE program manager.

NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) program recently published a Technical Manual, NASA DOEPOD [Design of Experiments for Probability of Detection] NDE Capabilities Data Book.

Dr. Jess Waller, material scientist at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility with Jacobs Technology Inc., received the 2015 Robert J. Painter Memorial Award for Meritorious Service from ASTM International and the Society for Standards Professionals for his significant contributions to standards over the last year. Waller, part of the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance’s (OSMA) Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) program, was chosen for this award out of ASTM’s approximately 32,000 members. 

Members of NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) Working Group, along with the American Society for Testing and Materials, collaborated in the development of voluntary consensus standards for NDE of flat-panel polymer matrix composites as well as thin-walled metallic liners and overwraps in composite overwrapped pressure vessels. Before this effort, there were no comprehensive standards for NDE in these areas.

Since last December, representatives from NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance’s Nondestructive Evaluation program have provided presentations to various audiences that highlighted their efforts and new ventures related to Additive Manufacturing. 

Although Additive Manufacturing (AM) has been around for decades, increasing awareness of the significant benefits of flying 3D printed parts and using 3D printers in space has pushed NASA and the aerospace industry to take a close look at how to evaluate and certify AM parts to assure safety and mission success.