The CTMA Connector April 2009


April 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.

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Thanks to all who participated in our 2009 CTMA Symposium – “Motoring through Technology Transitioning”

What happened?

  • we shared lessons learned from technology transfer experiences within the DoD maintenance facilities
  • we formulated an initial action plan to obtain more funding for the CTMA program
  • we heard from the commanding general at TACOM about issues they are facing at their facilities
  • we received direct information from three Depot commanders about needs they face in the maintenance and repair of weapon systems
  • we had 15 CTMA project reviews, updating their status and plans for transitioning the technology broadly within DoD
  • we had 22 tabletop displays highlighting project activities and promoting networking between the participants
  • we witnessed the enthusiasm of an emerging engineering workforce with a demonstration by the high school robotics team, the Foley Freeze
  • we toured the state-of-the-art Ford truck manufacturing plant

The presentations are already available to those who participated in the Symposium and will be made available to everyone sometime this summer.

Attention DoD Personnel

Do you have improvement funds that can be applied to technology transitioning or technology pilots at your facility? The CTMA program is working on a memorandum of understanding with the Army Contracting Center of Excellence to turn around MIPR’s within 30 days.  What this means is that we can get your funds obligated in about 45 days within the construct of the CTMA program.  Plus, in many cases, CTMA funds will be used to further leverage the technology transitioning effort.  Take advantage of this opportunity by working with the NCMS program management staff or through Chuck Ryan at chuckr@ncms.org.

CTMA Project Approval: Enhanced Wiring Integrity Systems, Phase II

DoD Participants: WR-ALC – Planned Depot Maintenance (PDM) Line; FRC Southeast; FRC Southwest; OC-ALC – B-1 SPO/Depot; Ellsworth AFB – B-1 28th Bomb Wing; Dyess AFB – B-1 7th Bomb Wing; Langley AFB – F-15 Maintenance; FRC East The U. S. Department of Defense (DoD) routinely performs overhauls, modifications, scheduled maintenance and unscheduled maintenance at various sites throughout the world. The speed with which these tasks are accomplished is critical with regard to the scheduling of military exercises and ultimately our national security. The time required to perform these tasks is a direct relationship to the overall operational cost performance of the particular military or commercial organizations. The amount of man-hours expended annually for troubleshooting and repairing wiring systems varies with each platform and task but there is increasing pressure to reduce cost and increase the readiness of the military hardware. The original Phase I of the EWIS project demonstrated the potential that can be realized by effective wire testing and maintenance. EWIS resulted in success at each of the partner sites over the last several years. As the demand on military aircraft increases and the life of aircraft are extended, the need to effectively implement wiring integrity programs to maintain the health of these aircraft also increases. Quick identification of the faulty wire path and location of the fault will assist greatly in providing increased mission readiness. EWIS I was centered on a reactive maintenance posture that is practiced at all maintenance levels. EWIS I effectively incorporated the use of the EWIS technology in the established reactive maintenance environment.

EWIS II targets implementation of new methods of electrical inspection to help foster a proactive posture. Multiple test protocols and other prognostic test approaches will be implemented in EWIS II for feasibility in the DoD maintenance community.

The objectives of the EWIS II project are to:

  • Provide selected project partners with the training to implement the EWIS technology into their respective maintenance environments.
  • Build on the accomplishments of EWIS I and extend training and methodologies from a reactive to proactive environment.
  • Establish proper inspection testing methodology for effective data collection and analysis to launch an effective wiring health monitoring program.
  • Through the health monitoring program gain greater insight and understanding into the degeneration of aircraft wiring.
  • Provide the necessary hardware and enhanced software tools to designated project partners.

The long-term goals of the program are to:

  • Reduce the cost of wiring maintenance on high failure aircraft systems through the integration of aircraft wiring maintenance into the scheduled maintenance cycles.
  • Reduce the number of unscheduled wiring maintenance events.
  • Improve the mission readiness of the participating platforms.

EWIS II includes a handheld device, which can reduce troubleshooting time by identifying the location of wiring failures within six inches. The ROI benefit is expected to increase by approximately 20% of the above estimates as a result (i.e. 20-60% total increase of ROI for each depot). Each participating DoD site will identify and monitor their benefit metrics and results which will be documented in the project’s final technical report.

Additional anticipated benefits from the insertion of the EWIS technologies include but are not limited to:

  • Improved reliability of the wiring and electrical system and the increased mission availability of the platform.
  • Open-ended hardware and flexible software architecture capable of accepting technology enhancements and linking to existing maintenance database types.
  • Detection of degenerative conditions that could lead to a wiring failure and condition-based monitoring of wiring and electrical distribution system integrity.
  • Reduction in man-hours required when troubleshooting and repairing platform-wiring discrepancies.
  • Accurate tracking of maintenance actions, failures, location data.
  • Reduction of operational wiring related safety incidents (arching, fire, etc.)
  • User training which enables use of the EWIS II products in an proactive maintenance approach versus the current reaction response.
  • EWIS II sites can develop their own TPS units, enabling the users to automate manual testing and inspection processes.

The NCMS Contact is Lee Patch, leep@ncms.org, 734-995-4972.  

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.

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