Problem: Virtually all major helicopters and tiltrotors have composite main rotor blades that are also hand-sanded, or at best, impact blasted to remove the paint. In such cases, there is an increased risk of damage to the blade because of the lack of control of the coating removal process. In addition, hazardous waste can be greatly reduced through the use of a laser stripping system, saving an addition $100K per year.
Currently, the removal of paint from a V-22 consumes 372 hours of labor, so that this step of the repair process only allows throughput of a single aircraft per month. Depot workload for the V-22 is expected to increase ten-fold over the current maintenance workload. This increase will also mean that Fleet Readiness Center East (FRC-E) will need to hire over 100 new workers to handle the coating removal workload. In addition, the current process relies upon manual sanding to remove the coatings. Hand-sanding requires relatively skillful artisans so as to not damage the wire mesh lightning protector just underneath the outer coatings.
SolutionApproach: In order to increase the depot throughput of V-22 aircraft, an automated and less labor intensive system must be developed and deployed. Using the Automated Rotor Blade Stripping System (ARBSS) system as a base, the overall project will first develop and deploy enhanced ARBSS versions that will be more robust, able to achieve faster stripping rates, and can be easily reconfigured to handle a variety of blades and propellers. The project will then extend the technology in scale to design and deploy a RACRS to a V-22 fuselage with reconfigurability to other similarly sized vertical lift vehicles. In addition to the primary coating removal via the use of lasers, the project will develop reconfigurable robotic systems that would include automated robotic head path planning, sensing, and control to minimize the use of labor in the coating removal process.
Benefit: Reduction in total cost and labor currently associated with manual blade stripping.
Hazardous Waste Savings: Hazardous waste savings for both ARBSS and the V-22 installation are estimated to be $100K/year compared to alternative methods, such as hand-sanding.
Impact on Warfighter:
- Improved readiness levels for V-22.
DoD Participation:
- U.S. Navy (FRC East)
- U.S. Navy (NUWC Keyport)
- U.S. Army (Corpus Christi)
- U.S. Air Force (WR-ALC)
Industry Participation:
- Brinks-Koops, Inc.
- General Lasertronics
- Penn State
- Battelle
- SIS
- API
NCMS Project Manager: Chuck Ryan (734)995-4905
