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| June 2010
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. We welcome the following companies into NCMS: Accio Energy, Inc. (www.accioenergy.com) Accio Energy is making distributed wind energy systems scalable, reliable, ad affordable with Aerovoltaic energy systems that directly convert wind energy to electricity without any moving parts. Accio Energy Aerovoltaic energy systems offer the low cost of big windmills with the modularity and flexibility of solar. Its a new director in wind energy. Pratt & Miller Engineering and Fabrication, Inc. (www.prattmiller.com) Providing clients with leading-edge engineering and low-volume manufacturing solutions, Pratt & Miller is a world-class engineering company and a respected industry leader in automotive, commercial, military, and aerospace industries. Their range of design, engineering, manufacturing, and vehicle program management capabilities are among the most sophisticated in the world. StandardAero Redesign Services, Inc. (www.standardaero.com) StandardAero is one of the largest independent Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul businesses in the world, providing comprehensive services to commercial, military, business aviation, helicopters and industrial operators. StandardAero is ISO 9001-2000 Quality System certified as well as FAA/Transport Canada certified. Gravikor, Inc. (www.gravikor.com) Gravikor is a global leader in the development and implementation of state-of-the-art spaceframe and structural weight reduction technologies to the military and security markets. Milspray Military Technologies (www.milspray.com) Milspray is an accomplished defense company specializing in high performance and special purpose military coatings, RESET services and the manufacturing of systems and products geared for military readiness sustainability and environmental considerations. PDQ Precision Inc. (www.pdqprecision.com) PDQ Precision manufactures and distributes the Mini-Max Cleaning and Waste Management equipment and technology. This system is used to clean such items as electronics, weapons, fiber optics, food service and medical products, etc., in complete safety to the user, environment, and the item being serviced. It contains waste to solid entrapment, and eliminates the waste water stream! Seica Inc. (www.seica.com) Seica is a global supplier of automatic test equipment and selective soldering systems. They offer completely automated, laser-based selective soldering solutions, as well as a complete line of test solutions, which include bed of nails and flying probe testers. These have the ability to perform manufacturing defect analysis, in-circuit tests, functional tests and optical tests of loaded boards, second and third level electronic modules and printed circuit boards. SpaceForm Welding Solutions Inc. (www.spaceformtech.com) SpaceForm Welding Solutions is an advanced welding technology company set up to commercialize the patented Deformation Resistance and Super-Mig Welding processes as a way to cut costs and improve production throughput.
NCMS Technology Showcase at the Marine Corps Maintenance Center (MCA)receives lots of local interest The latest NCMS/CTMA Technology Showcase was held 8,9 June at the Maintenance Center in Albany, Georgia. With over 20 companies participating in the Showcase, and tremendous involvement from the command and staff at MCA, the event garnered attention from the local media in Albany. Click or paste the links below to get a flavor of the Showcase. http://www.walb.com/Global/story.asp?S=12623394
http://www.mysouthwestga.com/news/video.aspx?list=194939
http://www.albanyherald.com/news/headlines/95921444.html
http://www.walb.com/Global/story.asp?S=12613317
http://www.mysouthwestga.com/news/story.aspx?id=467888
We are targeting the next Technology Showcase to be at Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in late September or early October. Then we plan to go to FRC-SW (North Island) early next year. Stay tuned for details. Recently Completed CTMA Project: Modernization of Nickel Electroplating DoD Participants: Corpus Christi Army Depot; Fleet Readiness Center Southwest Electroplating is an essential process used at Department of Defense (DoD) depots during overhaul of aircraft, ships, tanks, small arms, and other weapons. It is primarily used for corrosion protection and resizing of worn parts. Electroplating is expensive to perform in terms of labor, materials, energy and environmental costs. This CTMA project was the latest in a series of four projects involving implementation of revolutionary commercial electroplating methods that resulted in improved product quality and major cost savings at military depots. The initial three projects successfully applied approaches to hard chrome plating, while this CTMA project successfully extended the concept to nickel electroplating. During the project, innovative masking and nickel electroplating methods were designed and tested on aircraft parts requiring refurbishment by the Corpus Christi Army Depot (CCAD) and the Fleet Readiness Center (FRC) Southwest. These methods had been used by project partners in recent commercial plating applications but had not been used by military depots. The innovations included:
At each location, depot engineering staff selected a part for project consideration that was difficult or impossible to effectively plate using conventional means. The project involved several stages of prototype tooling design, fabrication and testing. Overall, implementation of these advanced plating methods provides a number of key advantages over conventional practices:
The part selected by CCAD (AH-64 Blade Tip Cap) did not have an approved repair process prior to the project and used parts were discarded as scrap metal. Therefore, an opportunity existed for immediate savings. The part selected by FRC Southwest (Rotodome Gearbox Housing) had an existing repair process, however, that method was expensive and time consuming to perform and often resulted in rejected parts and rework. At the conclusion of the project, a final set of production tooling was supplied to CCAD and FRC Southwest and employee training was performed. Based on the success of prototype tooling tests, CCAD is conducting a demonstration/validation project and is expecting to fully implement the process for the selected part during CY 2010. FRC Southwest is continuing tests of the equipment and is also expected to implement the technology during CY 2010. The projected savings that follow are for the two components included in this project only:
Earlier project phases showed similar savings for hard chrome plated components. A calculation based on the number of DoD facilities refurbishing plated parts times the number of unique plated parts could result in over $50M in savings over three years coupled with an even more important benefit of getting our weapon systems back into the field quicker. The NCMS contact is Bill Chenevert, billc@ncms.org, 734-995-7989. 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. |
| © 2010 |
