Brimrose Receives SBIR Award for Nondestructive Testing in Additive Manufacturing

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded Brimrose Technology Corp. a Phase 1 Small Business Innovation Research award in the amount of $149,995 to improve the manufacturing of small modular reactors by means of nondestructive testing. Penn State University is a subcontractor on the award.

The focus of the Phase I portion of the award is to demonstrate the feasibility of an ultrasonic scattering technique (UST) used to characterize the microstructure and material properties for components made with various additive manufacturing characteristics. The testing will serve to determine whether heat treatment and/or additional processing is necessary.

Gaining this understanding will lead to laying the groundwork for optimizing the process monitoring for large-scale inspections that will then lead to better component reliability.

By the end of Phase I, components made with various process parameters will be tested using the UST process, which will then be validated by using traditional destructive testing.

For Phase II, Brimrose Technology will focus on refining the electronics and data-processing algorithms in the prototype, optimizing the sensitivity, and testing components of different types and power sources.