On April 4, 2025, we were proud to join attendees from SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, Hill AFB, 47G, and others to celebrate the grand opening of the Advanced Inspection, Methods and Materials (AIMM) Center in Ogden, Utah.
Developed through a technology partnership between OMNI NDE and composite inspection and consulting firm CICNDT, the AIMM Center brings together the latest in technologies for nondestructive testing, inspection, and engineering (NDT, NDI, NDE) with our next-gen automation and robotics. This partnership leverages a team of engineers and Level 3 inspectors with decades of experience in advanced composites across the aerospace, defense, biomedical, marine, and wind energy industries.
Showcasing Flexible, Robotic Inspection
One of the highlight demonstrations during the opening was our OMNI NDE robotic CT system housed in a shipping container.
“This showcases the flexibility of our cobot-based systems that don’t need a dedicated cell and can be moved around a facility for inspecting large structures like launcher payload fairings,” notes James Bennett, Ph.D., CEO of Omni NDE. “In some cases, we can even enable inspections in the field, which is a unique capability for CT, but also for most of these methods, where forward deployment typically means inspection by hand.”
We are specifically developing noncontact inspection capabilities—including robot CT and laser ultrasound—that can accommodate no-touch/no-contamination requirements as well as eliminate the use of water and subsequent drying.
A One-Stop Shop for Advanced Materials
The 4,000-square-foot facility houses individual stations for a comprehensive suite of technologies, including:
- Robot RT (X-ray) and robot computed tomography (CT)
- Noncontact laser UT and Phased array ultrasonic testing (UT)
- Thermography and Laser shearography
- Metrology/3D surface mapping
- Eddy current and Bond testing
“One of our goals for establishing the AIMM Center is to bring the latest sensors and inspection methods into one place,” explains Jeremy Heinks, CEO of CICNDT. “So that if you have a unique material, application or inspection problem, there are a wide range of tools that can be applied by experienced Level 3 inspectors to find the best solution.”
Moving the Industry Forward
Together with CICNDT, we are working to help enable the next generation of advanced materials and manufacturing. Once a solution is found for a specific challenge, the AIMM Center works with companies to develop customized systems and training to meet production needs. Available services include:
- Scan-as-a-service and CT/RT vault services
- Proof of detection (POD)/R&D consulting
- Automation and NDT digital twin development
- Equipment sales, calibration, training, and certification
We are currently working with industry partners to investigate cost and time studies, evaluating known defects in materials like ceramic matrix composites (CMC) and welded thermoplastic composites.
As Jeremy Heinks notes, “We also want to provide further demonstration events and workshops in the future, as we build our database with these new inspection techniques, to help bring the whole industry forward.”
Have questions? Contact us. We’d love to show you what we can do.
