Alfred University professor Sundaram receives DOE funding to secure system to scan additively manufactured ceramics

ALFRED, NY – S.K. Sundaram, Inamori Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Alfred University, has secured $90,000 in federal funding to acquire a system used to scan additively manufactured ceramic materials and composites for pores, discontinuities, and defects.

Additive manufacturing is the process by which materials are used to three-dimensionally print objects. The grant secured by Sundaram, through the U.S. Department of Energy’s General Scientific Infrastructure (GSI) program, was used to procure a high-speed terahertz scanning system for additively manufactured ceramic materials and composites particularly for nuclear applications. Students and researchers at the Inamori School of Engineering can use this equipment as a nondestructive tool for evaluation tool of 3D printed parts.

The scanning system operates with two THz imaging cameras that scan and create images of materials for intended applications. According to Sundaram, the applications, meant for non-destructive testing (NDT) purposes, include “the rapid non-destructive characterization of object and defects in uniform materials of under-coated surfaces.” The system can be used to create images of several different ceramic materials and composites in order to view the composition of materials in the scanned object.

The procurement of the new equipment has just be initiated. It will be installed in about six months in the Terahertz Waves Laboratory (T-Lab) co-located with the existing THz spectroscopy and imaging system in the Sundaram Group located in the Hall of Glass Science at Alfred University.