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| February 2009
Welcome to The CTMA Connector, a monthly newsletter designed to provide news and ideas about the Commercial Technologies for Maintenance Activities (CTMA) program. The CTMA program is a joint Department of Defense/National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (DoD/NCMS) effort promoting collaborative technology development between industry and the DoD maintenance and repair facilities. This newsletter highlights ongoing projects, serves as a forum for promoting new project ideas, and provides other news of interest to the program. Our goal is to stimulate your participation and solicit your input. Feel free to submit items for the newsletter as well as any suggestions to make it more useful. More information about the program can be found at http://ctma.ncms.org/. To subscribe or unsubscribe to the CTMA Connector, send a message to listserv@listserv.ncms.org with “subscribe CTMANewsletter” or “unsubscribe CTMANewsletter” in the message body. If you have an interest in the transitioning of technology into practice in the DoD maintenance and repair facilities, then register now for the 2009 CTMA Symposium – “Motoring through Technology Transitioning” Monday, 30 March – Thursday, 2 April at the MGM Grand Detroit, Detroit, Michigan Register: https://www.ncms.org/SSL/Symposium2009/registration.htm Agenda: https://www.ncms.org/09CTMASymposium/agenda.htm The focus for this year’s symposium will be technology transition, what are the hurdles and how projects can more quickly be put into practice at the DoD facilities. Featuring real experiences from both a DoD and Industry perspective, we will try to outline a how-to guide for attendees. Confirmed speakers include:
With the focus on technology transitioning, we will have panel and open discussions identifying issues hampering transitioning of new technologies, and a roadmapping session addressing approaches to reduce these hurdles. Individual project teams will also share their working experience with transitioning technology to the DoD. So plan to join us and participate in the Symposium. We will also feature a winning team from the 2008 FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition. The goal of the program is to inspire young people to pursue careers in science and technology. The Hotel block is expiring soon, so please move quickly to secure your hotel room. NCMS Starts Lightweight Materials Program In addition to the CTMA program, NCMS has other programs for the express purpose of developing and implementing new technology. The most recent program is sponsored by the US Department of Energy where the objective is to reduce the costs and time needed to develop new lightweight materials for high volume automotive applications. The driving force is to greatly improve fuel mileage without compromising safety, performance, and comfort. New lightweight materials need to be developed and processed into component parts, which currently takes 10 years and 10′s of million of dollars. The program aims to cut the time and cost in half using tools associated with high performance computing. With the available funding, the following four projects are being developed: Ultra-Lightweight Sandwich Composite Constructions for Autobody Applications: Explore and investigate ultra lightweight but strong sandwich composites made from aluminum foam cores and carbon fiber based thermoplastic composite facings.Low Cost Resin System for Lightweight PMC Components: Reduce process cycle time and costs the composite part fabrication that rely on resin infusion (e.g. RTM, SRIM, VARTM). Have the material system well characterized and incorporated into numerical process modeling tools to bind the process window and ensure high production yield. The numerical analyses would be validated with element tests and optimized with statistical variations in material properties and process conditions.Lightweight Material Usage Optimization for Multi-Mode Safety, NVH, and Durability Performance Using High Performance Computing (HPC): Evaluate a new method of accessing significant amounts of HPC resources while performing many applicable steps of the overall development process in parallel. Team with world class hardware and software vendors to develop and implement a remote HPC model. The project will be a full vehicle, public domain model of a typical four door automobile. This vehicle will be analyzed for both traditional (steel) and hybrid (steel and lightweight CBS®) solutions. Multiple safety modes, along with basic static and dynamic stiffness configurations will be used to create a holistic set of performance targetsAutomotive Component Manufacture in Titanium: A group of existing part designs will be considered for replacement in titanium with a major US vehicle manufacturer, and cost justification performed based on expected material and processing cost models. Material selection will be undertaken with a primary titanium supplier, with the focus on low-cost grades that meet functional requirements at lower mass. Project teams have been formed in each of these areas, but if you are interested in participating on a cost-share basis, or would like more information, contact the NCMS program manager, Steve Hale, steveh@ncms.org, 734-995-2195.
We appreciate your feedback. Please contact Chuck Ryan with suggestions or input on other topics that would be of interest to you in this newsletter. The CTMA Program is sponsored by the Department of Defense; the content of this newsletter does not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the government; no official endorsement should be inferred. |
