February 2026 Volume 8

FORGING RESEARCH

MANUFACTURING AUTOMATION SYSTEMS TO SOLVE FORGING HOT PART INSPECTION THROUGH AN AUTOMATED NON-CONTACT SYSTEM By Matta Rizkallah and Dekland D. H. Barnum

Introduction In March of 2024, FIA put forward an industry call for proposals, in collaboration with the Army Research Lab (ARL) and on behalf of the Army Futures Command (AFC). One of the four project teams awarded is focused on developing robotics and automated solutions specifically for non-contact hot part inspection. Manufacturing Automation Systems LLC (MAS) is already well underway on the project, with site meetings at an identified FIA member producer company and a planned part geometry identified. This month, FIA met with Matta Rizkallah, CEO of MAS, to discuss the project as their team begins work following the first two months of the project.

Project Inception In discussing how the project came to be, MAS learned of the opportunity through a FIA supplier member and then connected with FIA from there. MAS has over 20 years of experience in design and build experience for deployments of automated inspection and measurement systems. However, their direct involvement in forging projects has taken place over the past few years. Although the project call had been out for several weeks at the time; MAS was able to submit on time as they were already working on a solution for non-contact hot part inspection. “We worked a few weekends to pull our data together for the whitepaper submittal, and submitted it just before the deadline expired,” Rizkallah recalls. The idea was first discussed during a customer visit that was initially focused on cold inspection using an automated three dimensional scan of the part to measure its critical dimensions. During a team meeting, Rizkallah recalled the question posed to the MAS team that shifted the focus of the discussion. The customer asked, “Wouldn’t it be great if you could do this measurement while the part is still hot?” With the 20 years of experience MAS had at that point, coupled with their existing QC Plus® measurement and inspection software platform, this became an industry need MAS wanted to focus on. Rizkallah recalls that the MAS team performed a feasibility study on non-contact hot part inspection which became part of the whitepaper submittal. Since then, MAS has developed a prototype for hot part inspection using a contact method for a major defense producer in the US, which includes inner and outer diameter measurements of a cylindrical part. Developing a non-contact solution would have far greater applications on a wide range of geometries for both commercial and defense applications. “The prototype we developed was very successful.” Rizkallah recalled. The next step was to take the learnings from the prototype and produce the final product for production. Why Non-Contact Hot Part Inspection? “Being able to measure while the part is hot, that’s the real value.” Rizkallah stated. A typical forged part requires at least 30 minutes to cool before it can be measured, inspected, or placed in a Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM). A part can take much longer depending on size, and therefore, the press downtime impact can be significant. A non-contact hot part inspection solution would allow for faster process feedback during changeovers and as parts are being produced, increasing production volumes because of increased press uptime “One of the opportunities would be to implement hot part inspection so that you don't have to turn the press off for every job change, for an hour or two hours.” Rizkallah notes.

FIA MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2026 64