December 2011

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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DoD Partners with NCMS in $100,000 Maintenance Technology Challenge

The Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Maintenance, Mr. John Johns, has issued the 2012 Maintenance Technology Challenge designed to introduce new technologies to DoD’s maintenance facilities that will help sustain materiel availability at reduced cost. Mr. Johns has tapped the Commercial Technologies for Maintenance Activities (CTMA) Program, a unique collaboration between OSD and the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) to administer the $100,000 challenge. Mr. Johns sees this as “a unique opportunity to drive innovation and maintenance technology insertion by leveraging the strong track record of the CTMA program and partnership with NCMS.” In driving in this direction, he has also emphasized “the need of bringing new, but proven, technologies from the commercial sector into DoD maintenance as a key element of a multi-pronged strategy to continue to produce the levels of materiel readiness required by our military forces, but at subs tantially reduced cost.”

Concept papers are due to NCMS by March 1st, 2012. “We are looking for projects that demonstrate strong benefits not only to the DoD but to industry as well,” states Dr. Chuck Ryan, NCMS Vice President and co-director of the CTMA Program, he adds that “strong teaming with DoD maintenance facilities is also encouraged.”

The selection criterion for project ideas includes the level of innovation, overall benefits, ability to deploy the technology within 12 months, and the strength of the team. Five finalists will be given the opportunity to present their project ideas to the DoD Senior Sustainment Leader Panel, who will ultimately choose the winning team for the Challenge as part of the 2012 CTMA Symposium, being held at the U.S. Navy Fleet Readiness Center Southwest in Coronado, CA, March 26-28, an annual NCMS symposium which showcases technologies being developed with DoD maintenance activities, and features briefings by senior DoD leaders around issues and plans for the sustainment of their fleets. In addition, a technology showcase will be hosted by FRC-SW presenting an opportunity for NCMS membership to demonstrate new technologies that may be of interest to the DoD. Up-to-date information on the Challenge, Symposium and Technology Showcase can be found at

http://www.ncms.org/index.php/the-2012-ncmsosd-maintenance-technology-challenge/

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Plan to attend the 2012 CTMA Symposium, March 26-28, Navy Fleet Readiness Center Southwest, Coronado, CA   “Collaborate to Innovate”

A wide variety of activities are being planned for this years CTMA Symposium.  On Monday, March 26, we start off with a Technology Showcase on site of the FRC-SW facilities where project teams set up tabletop displays of their technologies to an audience of FRC-SW managers, engineers, and artisans.  The Symposium plenary sessions start on Tuesday, March 27, with perspectives from DoD Senior Sustainment Leaders, and a Program Managers Panel with representatives from each of the services outlining their sustainment issues and how they are being addressed.  In addition we will feature our first Maintenance Technology Challenge competition.  On Wednesday, March 28, a Maintenance Activities Panel will feature several Depot Commanders discussing their technology needs, followed by track sessions  with technology project presentations.

Networking activities include the opening reception on Monday, March 26, an Industry Tabletop Display during an evening reception on Tuesday, and for those of you so inclined, a golf scramble on Sunday, March 25 at the FRC-SW club.

More information and registration can be found at:

http://www.ncms.org/index.php/ctma-symposium-2012/

Registration will begin in January 2012.

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NCMS/CTMA Project Wins Manufacturing Excellence Award

The NCMS/CTMA program was awarded its tenth National Center for Advanced Technologies (NCAT) Defense Manufacturing Excellence Award at the 2011 Defense Manufacturing Conference (DMC) in Anaheim, CA. The award-winning CTMA team brought together several small companies including Gravikor, the Michigan Research Institute, and SpaceForm Welding Solutions as well as the U.S. Army PM Light Tactical Vehicles division and the Marine Corps Maintenance Center Albany. The project team’s objective was to develop solutions for lighter, stronger military vehicles, allowing for the utilization of the latest lightweight armor solutions and improving overall maintainability. The awarded project, “Deformation Resistant Welding of Space Frame Structures to Reduce Weight in DoD Ground Vehicles,” applied new innovations in welding techniques to dramatically reduce time and weight associated with traditional vehicle space-frame construction.

The team created a design for a new cage structure that would completely replace the current body structure in the military’s ubiquitous HMMWV (Humvee) platform. The NCMS team scrapped traditional old-school welding techniques in favor of deformation resistance welding – an approach that produces atomically clean surfaces between metals to be joined. The result is a near-perfect surface bond with many benefits over the traditional approach:

• Elimination of weld fillers cuts weight, corrosion targets, and weak spots
• Deformation-welded surfaces offer a considerably stronger bond
• Easily supports joining of unlike metals, such as aluminum and titanium
• Fully compatible with advanced composite armor technologies
• Entire weld process is nearly 1,000 times faster than the traditional method

The solution is cost-feasible as well, requiring little additional equipment and practically zero added investment. The project demonstrated the potential for a substantial weight saving (~1,500 lbs) with a comparable protection level to the current FRAG 7 HMMWV.

Other advantages through the use of the DRW Space Frame Design include:

• ~50% reduction in required parts
• Rapid manufacturing process for cage structure
• Fully bolt in kit (no welding at the depot level)
• Requires no major modification to current HMMWV chassis
• Improved ingress and egress for end user
• Increased rollover protection versus standard HMMWV

The NCMS contact is Chuck Ryan, chuckr@ncms.org, 734-995-4905.

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CTMA Project seeks bids on equipment

NCMS is forming a new project that will target the development of a performance testing system for ground combat vehicles. US Army TARDEC in Warren, MI, is now developing the test table. One aspect of the project is building an environmental enclosure for testing components over their full operating environment specifications, a safety cage, and a video system for safe observation during testing. The project scope also includes development of a track testing system. It does not include functional or performance testing of vehicle electronics. We are seeking interested companies who would like to bid on providing the equipment.  Further information is available from the NCMS contact, Tony Haynes, tonyh@ncms.org, (734) 995-4930.

 

CTMA Project Opportunities: Man-Packable Ground Robotics

Man-packable ground robots have over the last few years become an indispensable part of the U.S. defense combat arsenal. These systems serve Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR), IED disposal, and many other missions where they replace humans in hazardous situations. They are in short, ubiquitous. However, because of urgent needs, many systems were acquired without a strategy in place for interoperability and long term sustainment. The Department of Defense is now focused on driving future acquisitions from a comprehensive systems engineering foundation. Two of the most pressing factors are interoperability standards for the various mission kits and an architecture standard for controls, both of which are in development. The emerging project will evaluate both at the prototype level.

The NCMS contact is Tony Haynes, tonyh@ncms.org, (734) 995-4930.

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CTMA Project Wins Great Ideas Competition

The CTMA project, “No-Mask Electroplating”, was awarded first place in the “Great Ideas Competition” at SAE’s 2011 DoD Maintenance Symposium and Exhibition in Fort Worth, Texas. The annual symposium brings together thousands of government and industry representatives to exchange ideas to improve maintenance practices and procedures.

Modernization of metal electroplating with no-mask conforming anodes is an innovative NCMS R&D project that sought to address issues around electroplating such as the extensive time it takes to mask parts, inaccuracies, inefficiencies and working with plating baths which are highly toxic. NCMS collaborated with government and industry to find a single, powerful solution to eliminate masking labor, achieve faster plating times, and improve uniformity of deposits.

The project resulted in a:

• 95% reduction in pre-plating part preparation
• 45% reduction in plating time
• 50% increase in plating tank capacity, improving overall throughput
• $2,220,000 in immediate annual savings from the pilot parts alone

Collaborative participants on this award winning project included the Corpus Christi Army Depot (CCAD), the Fleet Readiness Center (FRC) Southwest and Advanced Tooling Corporation (ATC).  The team estimates that if No-Mask Conforming Anodes were deployed across the Department of Defense (DoD), over $50 Million in savings could potentially be realized with overall process improvement times of 35-50%.

The positive impact on the environment is also substantial. No-mask conforming anodes are fully reusable. The technology completely eliminates the mountains of tape, wax and other maskants – all of which must be disposed of as hazardous waste, where even brief exposure could lead to serious health complications.

A video outlining the project was created by the NCMS Educational Services’ team and can be found atwww.ncms.org under the multimedia tab.

The NCMS contact is Bill Chenevert, billc@ncms.org, 734-995-7989.

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NCMS again wins best booth at the 2011 Defense Maintenance Symposium

With a western theme, including a riding bull, we showcased 5 CTMA projects along with NCMS.

The five project teams included:

• Imaginestics– IUID for Legacy Parts
• Ecylpse International– Enhanced Wiring Integrity Systems
• ID Systems– Centralized Fleet Automated Management Systems
• Advanced Tooling Corporation– No Mask Tooling for Plating Baths
• Black & Rossi; Topline Technology Solutions – Enabling Logistical Interoperability

Thanks to Debbie Lilu and her team for a job well done.  Special thanks to Tod Eggler at TOPS for designing, building, setting up and breaking down the winning NCMS booth.

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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.

© 2011