In 1997 Lockheed Martin and NASA selected AMET to be the welding control company to provide the next set of automated welding systems for production and development needs required for the manufacture of the External Tank on NASA's Space Shuttle.

These advanced systems provide integrated control process and motion control to produce the very high quality variable thickness Aluminium welds required for the Space Shuttle External Tank. These systems also include integrated data acquisition and data analysis capabilities.

AMET has manufactured 12 VPPA / VP-GTAW / SPAW systems for Michoud to date.

Complex process requirements include real time out of tolerance checking, integrated dual vision system, advanced weld termination programming to closeout keyhole plasma welds, adaptive current controls and Laser based Arc Length Control.