The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) today announced that its Volumetric Accuracy for Large Machine Tools (VALMT) project has been honored with a R&D 100 Award. VALMT, which pioneered an innovative process in volumetric error compensation for large machine tools, is the fifth R&D 100 Award NCMS has received. Widely recognized as the "Oscars of Innovation," the annual R&D 100 Awards honor excellence in high technology products.

 "VALMT will save ship and aircraft manufacturers millions of dollars," said NCMS Vice President Chuck Ryan. "Machine tool calibrations used to take an entire week, with VALMT the same process can be performed in a day. The benefits of this technology aren’t just time savings; it will allow for more accurate parts, reducing or eliminating expensive re-work during assembly."

Learn More About VALMT- Podcast  VALMT Awards and Articles

The NCMS Collaborative R&D Process teamed private industry (Automated Precision Inc., The Boeing Corporation, Siemens Energy and Automation and MAG Cincinnati Machine, LLC) and the Department of Defense (U.S. Air Force Logistics Center, Naval Foundry and Propeller Center, U.S. Navy Fleet Readiness Center East, and the U.S. Army Anniston Depot) for the VALMT project, quickly developing the groundbreaking technology affordably, and with less risk than alternative “go it alone” R&D methods.

“The secret to the success of NCMS R&D is collaboration,” said NCMS President & CEO Rick Jarman. “Collaboration maximizes benefits and reduces risk and cost. This award is the latest validation that the NCMS collaborative model works.”

Winners of the R&D 100 Awards are selected by an independent judging panel and the editors of R&D Magazine. The publication and its online portal serve research scientists, engineers, and other technical staff members at high tech industrial companies and public and private laboratories around the world.

R&D 100 is not the only award to honor VALMT: the technology also received a coveted Defense Manufacturing Excellence Award for outstanding cooperative efforts on technology development between government, industry and academia (the seventh for NCMS). Northrop-Grumman recently selected VALMT to improve accuracies on their large-volume machine tools used for production of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

The Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition is an international business plan competition which highlights Michigan as a robust and vibrant venue for innovation and business opportunity. The competition fuels innovation-based business growth by uncovering the best and brightest new business concepts from local and global entrepreneurs, exposing those opportunities to potential investment capital and fostering their growth within Michigan.

Billed as the largest the business plan competition, The Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition is open to any early stage business from anywhere around the world.  But in order to receive the prize money, businesses do need to be resident or move to headquarter in Michigan.

Sectors of emphasis:

• Advanced Materials
• Advanced Transportation
• Alternative Energy
• Defense & Homeland Security
• Information Technology
• Life Science
• Medical Devices
• Next Generation Manufacturing
• Products and Services

For more information:  http://www.acceleratemichigan.org/

As the world's largest supplier of automatic transmissions, GM Powertrain is able to offer a wide range of smooth-shifting, reliable and efficient transmissions for cars and trucks.

GM Powertrain

The next Annual Robotics Technology Consortium (RTC) Membership Meeting has been scheduled for Thursday, August 26, 2010 in Denver, CO.  RTC members should register by COB on Friday, August 20, 2010. According to the RTC Bylaws to remain a “member in good standing” you must attend at least one (1) of the two (2) membership meetings held each year.

The RTC is a non-profit, industry organization administered by NCMS and was formed in 2008 to speed the development and deployment of ground robotics technology for the Department of Defense (DoD).  The RTC has over 200 members made up of large and small commercial companies, academic institutions, and non-profit organizations and seeks to engage companies and organizations that may not have historically performed work for the Defense Department and other Government organizations in addition to traditional defense contractors.

Please visit http://www.roboticstechc.org/

Parker SCITech Group is a consulting organization focused on systems engineering, information assurance and program management for manufacturing and engineering organizations.

http://www.parkerscitech.com/

Laser Removal in Action (WMV)

This robotic laser stripping system is capable of removing paint from a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter blade in less than two hours – a time savings of 75% over hand-sanding. The laser system is so precise that it can remove only the top layers of paint, leaving the primer layer intact and not damaging the blade substrate.  When it was done by hand, technicians wore hazmat suits and worked in sweltering heat with toxic stripping chemicals.  Even a small mistake could result in irreparable damage to a $110,000 helicopter blade. This elegant laser system removes that risk. It’s going to save the Department of Defense about 80% in blade refurbishing costs, not to mention the huge time savings.

For more information about this project please contact Phil Callihan, NCMS Executive Director of Communications, at (734) 995-2046 or email philc@ncms.org.

SenGenuity's mission is to bring to market highly differentiated sensor solutions based on Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) and Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) technologies.

http://www.sengenuity.com/

One Network Enterprises provides planning, execution, and business intelligence applications built on a federated cloud computing platform. Committed to embrace, not replace, existing technology, One Network enables companies to achieve unprecedented visibility and collaboration that supports synchronized end-to-end business processes, improved insight, and better decision-making.

http://www.onenetwork.com/

The following CTMA projects were recently approved:

Corrosion Resistant Solid State Thin-Walled Component Joining for Maintenance and Repair Applications

This project is specifically targeting one of the more challenging classes of weld repair and fabrication – thin-walled components.  Thin-walled components often require the use of the highest skilled welding artisans within the depot infrastructure due to the intricate nature of avoiding burn through and component thermal warping.  To avoid this, thin-walled components (common in nearly every military platform) are often over-engineered or buttressed with thicker metal reinforcements.  These countermeasures add significant unwanted weight to the platform and also increase the corrosion prone weld filler regions that results from conventional welding.  This project seeks to develop and test a new solid state joining method that does not melt the materials to be joined thus increasing dimensional accuracy, corrosion resistance, and weld cycle time.

The new state-of-the-art technology to be explored in this project stems from the use of a novel manufacturing method called Deformation Resistance Welding (DRW), which can be utilized to join a wide variety of thin-walled components common to virtually every DoD platform.  Further, the DRW technology can be readily retrofitted into any depot facility for rapid utilization as the fundamental technology is based upon the well-known principles of resistance spot welding yet applied to large components of many shapes and sizes.

Improved Stealth and Lower Cost Operations for U.S. Naval Ships using High-Performance Cordage Deck Edge Netting

The U.S. Navy uses two styles of deck edge netting:  metallic cord netting that is durable but very heavy and difficult to repair shipboard as well as add to a ship’s radar cross section.  The other netting that is used is nylon netting that is lightweight and has no radar signature but need to replaced every 18 to 24 months due to UV degradation, shrinkage and abrasion.  This project will evaluate a new cordage net that is lightweight, has no radar signature and has a Navy tested life of five years. This netting is machine-made and promises reduced lifecycle cost.