Advancing Additive Repair Technologies and Cold Spray for Sustainment of Maritime Assets

NCMS Project #: 141028

Problem: Commercial maritime assets face unique challenges related to maintenance and sustainment.  Globally operational fleets face these exceptional constraints of harsh environments and extreme distance by either carrying excess spare parts and material for repairs, or they delay operations and detour to shipyards for necessary repairs.  Additive manufacturing technologies, including cold spray, strategically integrated into the maintenance and sustainment efforts can dramatically extend the life of commercial maritime assets and help keep global supply chains intact to serve the general public.

Benefit: Cold spray has the capability to add new metal onto worn surfaces so critical features can be re-machined back to tolerance, allowing parts previously destined for scrap to be reused.  This provides an incredibly powerful tool for the commercial maritime industry to quickly refurbish an existing damaged or out of tolerance part and simply reuse it, rather than waiting weeks, months, or years in some cases, for a replacement part.

Solution/Approach: This project will incorporate a multi-effort approach, with tasks to support Advancing Additive Repair Technologies, inclusive of Cold Spray both to manufacture new components and devices, and to repair legacy weapon system components.  By acting as a testbed, the U.S. Navy is providing a roadmap for the successful implementation of cold spray technology onboard vessels. 

Impact on Warfighter:

• Reduce costs
• Improve maintenance and sustainment
• Maximize warfighter readiness

DOD Participation:

• Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA)
• Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR)
• U.S. Marine Corps

Industry Participation:

• VRC Metal Systems, LLC
• Solvus
• Northeastern University
• Temple University
• NCMS

Benefit Area(s):

• Cost savings
• Repair turn-around time
• Improved readiness
• Lightweighting

Focus Area:

• Additive/advanced manufacturing