In an age where engineered materials are becoming common place in the competitive world market, the manufacturer using engineered materials can not afford to waste material in the manufacturing process. The quality control techniques must become real time and on-line to reduce material waste and to reject unacceptable components before complex processing is performed on them. Once the quality control techniques become real time and on-line, the techniques can be incorporated into a feedback loop. The feedback loop can then be used to monitor and adjust the relevant parameters during the manufacturing process to assure component compliance to the desired specifications. To help usher in the era of “smart” manufacturing processes, new reliable and non-contacting NDE systems must be developed.