Correlation of Process-Induced Defects and Mechanical Performance in LPBF

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is seeking a vendor to provide laboratory-based additive manufacturing, non-destructive evaluation, and mechanical testing services. The vendor will be required to fabricate a minimum of sixty LPBF Inconel 718 mechanical test specimens and ten dedicated metallography witness bars, and perform various tests and analyses to establish objective 3D volumetric ground truth of internal defect morphology. The vendor will also be required to deliver spatially registered in-situ, XCT, and mechanical datasets and develop Probability of Detection (POD) models, Probability of False Alarm (PFA) curves, and critical a90/95 flaw sizes aligned with MIL-HDBK-1823A. • The vendor shall have unique capabilities and experience in integrated laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) platforms equipped with advanced in-situ monitoring suites, high-resolution computed tomography (CT) characterization, and NASA-STD-6030 technical requirements. • The vendor shall collect layer-wise visible and thermal in-situ monitoring data during all builds to capture part defects and process variations. • The vendor shall perform high-resolution X-Ray Computed Tomography (XCT) scanning on all sixty specimens in the as-built or stress-relieved state. • The vendor shall extract defect size distributions, spatial locations, and morphology within the build coordinate system to support validation and POD calculations.