CTMA Impact on Other Maintenance Focus Areas
The CTMA Program addresses focus areas that affect major elements in the maintenance and sustainment communities. While corrosion prevention and CBM+ are vital to warfighter readiness, CTMA projects fall into other important focus areas as well.
Read about these other areas below, why we concentrate on them, and an example of an innovative project that falls into each category.
Additive Manufacturing:
The DoD is embracing the benefits that AM offers and is incorporating this technology more and more into maintenance and sustainment activities. NCMS is an active participant in the Additive Manufacturing for Maintenance Operations (AMMO) Working Group that is chartered to develop an integrated DoD strategic vision and facilitate collaborative tactical implementation of AM technology.
AM Fleet Casting Project
A study was conducted to assess the technical suitability of 3D sand printing to utilize available information to manufacture land and maritime as well as aviation castings for the U.S. Navy. Two parts—one aviation casting and one maritime casting—were chosen with an additional maritime casting added midway through the project.
Autonomic Logistics:
Autonomic Logistics is a system that provides unmanned, autonomous transfer of equipment, baggage, people, information, or resources from point-to-point with minimal human intervention. The CTMA Program is involved in studies to determine what DoD maintenance and sustainment challenges could be addressed by autonomous logistics.
Technical Studies, Analyses of Innovative Container Operational Concepts and Expanded Use of Autonomous Logistics Platforms Project
A focused study on innovative container concepts and autonomous capabilities with direct application to logistics and both civil (at the retail or consumer level) and military requirements (high volume, high weight, or both).
Business Processes:
Projects that cover a wide variety of technological advances and create a change from formerly manual or low tech to a robust digital environment or dashboard platform would fall into this category.
Mission Analysis Readiness Synchronization (MARRS) Project
This project will create an information sharing platform that will allow interface with other federal, state, local, and foreign databases for a seamless integration with the Army National Guard to create a ready force with skillsets to match national emergencies alongside maintained equipment and operational posture.
Enhanced Inspection:
A cornerstone of the CTMA Program is evaluations, testing, and validations of technology that makes equipment safer while lowering overall costs. Enhanced inspection projects aim at assisting the maintainer’s task of determining the type and scope of repairs.
Automated Large Standoff, Large Area Thermography Inspection System (LASLAT) Project
Results have been extremely positive for this demonstration of a non-destructive inspection technology that uses thermography to rapidly inspect large areas of composite aircraft from a stand-off of 10-15 feet.
Health and Safety:
Maintainers’ health and safety is a concern that sits at the forefront of many CTMA projects. The goal is to introduce innovative technologies that assist the maintainers to perform their activities safely and in an environment as risk-free as possible.
ZeroG Arm and MaglogixR Magnets Project
These two technologies combined eliminate or remove the weight, vibration, and fatigue of holding and manipulating heavy tools as well and utilize incredibly powerful magnets to expedite job preparations safely. This powerful technological union has been successfully demonstrated at several DoD shipyards.
Reliability Improvement:
In this focus area, the objective of CTMA projects is to upgrade an existing system, service, or technology to either make it safer, extend its productive life span, reduce costs, or influence other DoD priorities. N-Methyl Pyrrolidone (NMP)- Free Lithium Ion Electrodes for Battery Manufacturing Project The objective of this project is to evaluate a technology that will reduce battery cost and improve performance of lithium ion batteries that the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Com-mand (CCDC) Ground Vehicle Systems Center (formerly known as TARDEC) hopes to use as replacement for lead-acid systems.