AFIT doctoral student builds custom 3D printer to produce radiation detectors for USAF
Additive manufacturing offers faster, lower-cost path to complex scintillator geometries
A project sponsored by the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development (NNSA DNN R&D) program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has applied additive manufacturing to the production of pixelated plastic scintillator arrays — devices used to detect and distinguish between neutrons and gamma rays.
Chandler Moore, a doctoral student at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), part of Air University, led the institute’s contribution to the project. Moore designed, built, and programmed a custom 3D printer capable of producing pixelated scintillator arrays from scratch.Â
Scintillators are a class of radiation detector that emit light when struck by ionizing radiation — energy invisible to the human eye but tracked for national security purposes.
Manufacturing gains
Traditional production methods for scintillators are slow and constrained when it comes to complex geometries such as pixelated arrays. The 3D printing approach Moore developed tackled both limitations, reducing cost and labor while improving the resolution of finished components.Â
During the project, Moore also worked with ORNL researchers to develop a novel 3D printable scintillator resin, enabling the production of high-resolution geometries previously difficult to achieve through conventional means.
The work generated two peer-reviewed published papers. Moore also spent a summer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory supporting parallel efforts to develop 3D printable plastic scintillator materials.
Air Force applications
The project met all sponsor deliverables set by the NNSA and produced detection capabilities relevant to several Air Force mission areas, including emergency response, treaty monitoring, and atmospheric radiation monitoring.
Moore also worked alongside other AFIT personnel who contributed to the work, including Dr. Juan Manfredi, Dr. Michael Febbraro — who authored the original project proposal — Dr. Daniel Rutstrom, Lt. Col. Ryan Kemnitz, and Lt. Col. Andrew Decker.
