Technologies in Transition CTMA Success Stories
CTMA and its partner companies work hard to ensure that the right technology gets in front of those who need it most and can make informed decisions. We are proud to celebrate each and every success that we’ve been involved with over the last couple of years. Here are just a few.
zeroG® Mechanical Arm with Multi-Pole Magnetic Technology
Shipyards are a high-intensity and high-activity environment and a perfect place to demonstrate a technology that could remove the weight, space, and safety issues affiliated with using industrial tools. Workers in Naval shipyards experience a higher than average injury rate, with back pain, sprains, and even loss of digits or limbs. Productivity suffers when workers can’t function. Beyond the effects of the injuries to the individual, these injuries result in higher costs for medical care, hiring temporary replacements, lower yields, and schedule delays, among other issues.
A mechanism that would alleviate the weight and reduce the vibrations of heavy tools such as grinders, scalers, impact wrenches, reciprocating saw, and other power tools would have a positive impact by reducing the number of injuries suffered each year while increasing productivity at the shipyard. In addition, the use of such a mechanism can allow an operator to maximize distance from radiation sources as well as facilitating their ability to work in awkward and confined spaces such as in submarines and other Naval vessels which often lead to injury.
At the end of February, a representative of Equipois LLC (manufacturer of the zeroG arm) and a representative of Maglogix LLC (owner of the patented lightweight multi-pole switchable permanent magnet technology), teamed up with CTMA to demonstrate their zeroG arm used in conjunction with the multipole magnets to the DoD. This innovative, commercially available technology effectively makes the power tool weightless and readily portable.
The audiences at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, many of whom are mechanics or shipfitters who use the equipment the old-fashioned way, were astounded by what the zeroG arm combined with the Maglogix Multi-Pole magnets could do. Navy mechanics evaluated the performance of several tools attached to the zeroG arm secured to various locations (including the deck, overhead, and bulkhead) using two five-pound multi-pole magnets which provided upwards of 3,000 pounds of holding force inside the cramped submarine. The mechanics and fitters were able to perform the needed tasks, unimpeded by the need for a bulky support-weighted cart, in more comfortable stances while experiencing a substantial reduction in tool vibrations, which rattle their bodies.
“Traditionally a mechanic who is grinding an overhead weld on a ship or submarine would be able to work for two minutes and then need a three-minute break to rest. By using this new technology, they can work with the tool 2–3 times longer before they need a break. It takes almost all the weight off the mechanic,” says Jim Michael, owner of Maglogix. “This technology more than doubles a mechanic or shipfitters productivity and has a return on investment often measured in days while dramatically improving safety.”
At the machine shop, the machinists were also introduced to several Maglogix multi-pole magnetic drills that weighed half of the competitive electro-magnetic drills with the added safety of remaining secure even during a power loss. In addition, various other Maglogix products were demonstrated including variable angle clamps, fixturing clamps, and magnetic hand lifters. The magnetic hand lifter was tested by several machinists to lift valve flanges, which range in weight from 30–250 pounds. Using the Maglogix hand lifters, the machinists could now safely lift and accurately position the valve flanges into place in far less time. “Where was this technology years ago?” a machinist asked during the demonstration. “This would have saved us a ton of time and drastically reduced crush injuries,” said another.
“When I see what this new technology can do I am proud that my products can assist our military and warfighters by making their jobs easier, faster, and a lot safer,” says Michael.
Automated Wire Test Set (AWTS™)
A company that can celebrate its 30th anniversary is a company that continues to innovate and can meet the critical needs of today’s challenges.
Eclypse’s AWTS have been popular with the DoD for years, and it earns its money back for customers very quickly. AWTS can test complex electrical sub-systems in minutes and finds critical issues that manual checks will miss.
A recent test technology developed for AWTS not only discovers a myriad of electrical issues in aircraft wiring systems, but it can also provide a high degree of accuracy for indicating precursors of failures in wiring systems and associated components. This allows for the root cause of the failures to be determined rapidly and prevents the waste of time and money caused by swaptronics, or the replacement of good parts when problems cannot be pinpointed.
“Older aircraft will develop wiring problems,” says David Lamper, Chief Engineer for Eclypse International. “Our goal is to reduce the costs of repair and lower the in-flight incidents, which is the purpose of all aircraft maintenance.”
It has been determined by testing that one out of 324 wires on aircraft has an unknown problem that is likely to fail or cause a failure. Eclypse’s approach to solving this problem is to implement AWTS in phased maintenance schedules and move from reactive to proactive maintenance. This approach has proven to increase mission readiness and it can save lives.
In 2015, teaming up with the CTMA Program, the AWTS technology was implemented into phased maintenance schedules for Special Operations at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The effort was to focus on fixing wiring issues before they caused an in-flight failure, an example of proactive, condition-based preventive maintenance. Before the introduction of AWTS, the helicopter fleet was experiencing 2–6 in-flight electrical issues per month. After one year of testing and conditioning with AWTS, the same fleet now experience only one electrical issue per year.
Because of the outstanding success of AWTS with Special Operations, Eclypse has been chosen to implement its unique technology using AWTS on the V-22 Osprey, both the Marine Corps and Air Force platforms.
“Our goal at Eclypse is to have the pilot land safely with their only complaint being about an uncomfortable seat,” says Lamper.
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)
Manufacturing processes and their accompanying data is often disorganized, unclear, redundant, and dispersed throughout the various stakeholders. NAVAIR is working to eliminate those issues by evaluating a Siemen’s PLM system called SIMATIC IT. The hope is that it will increase collaboration with the Fleet Readiness Centers (FRCs) and streamline processes in a configuration-managed environment. OEMs and industry are going digital, as is the U.S. Navy.
“This toolset required a network infrastructure that had to be accredited and will be used to better manage our data deliveries for our aircraft,” says Angela Padgett, Advanced Technology Lead at FRC East.
Currently, FRC East, FRC Southwest, and FRC Southeast are in various stages of the PLM project, all in preparation for going into production in the upcoming months. In addition to the FRCs going into production for their manufacturing areas, platforms such as the F-18, H-60, and MQ-8 are all working on joining that PLM environment in the near future. These platforms involve data migration for hundreds of thousands of pieces of data. At FRC East, the PLM is about to deploy in the manufacturing area on a small scale, which will be the foundation on which to build.
“At the moment we are extending PLM down to the shop floor level to make sure that we get all the engineering and manufacturing data. We need to understand their terminology and environment. At FRC Southeast we are midway through the development phase for their unique configuration to ensure that data is the way they would like to see it,” says Aaron Johns, U.S. Navy Technical Account Manager with Siemens.
Changing a culture from paper-based to a digital environment is a huge disruptor, but with training and skill upgrades this shift in the way of doing business will pay off in the mission readiness of the aircraft. According to Padgett, this project has led to significant discoveries about the complexities of PLM.
“It’s exciting to work with NAVAIR and the depots to help modernize their data management and model-based definitions and processes,” says Johns. “The NAVAIR leadership has provided a clear vision for the future.”
Intermittent Fault Detection and Isolation System (IFDIS™)
NAVAIR was having a problem with reliably detecting and isolating intermittent faults in their WRAs chassis. Last summer Universal Synaptics’ IFDIS was purchased by FRC Southwest to help determine specifically what was causing issues with the F/A-18 Hornet airframe’s General Converter Unit (GCU) chassis. Of the GCUs tested, IFDIS precisely detected faults in about 80 percent of them. According to an article in the June 2017 issue of the NAVAIR News, IFDIS resolved a GCU problem that was under an Engineering Investigation (EI) by identifying an intermittent pushed pin issue with the GCU wiring harness. Since the performance has been tracked, all F/A-18 GCUs that have been IFDIS tested have performed flawlessly.
NAVAIR was so impressed with these results that IFDIS has been procured for three additional NAVAIR locations, NAS Oceana, NAS Lemoore, and NSWC Crane. Engineers at these Naval Air Stations have deemed IFDIS so helpful that is has become a Local Engineer Specification (LES), effectively mandating the use of IFDIS on the F/A-18 A-D Block Aircraft GCUs. The IFDIS will also be utilized on the EA-18G aircraft.
“I believe with the results achieved to date within NAVAIR that a realization has occurred, that the current fleet of automatic test equipment and conventional scanning test sets are not addressing the intermittent fault testing void, reducing A-799 (No Fault Found [NFF]) or closing the Ready Basic Aircraft (RBA) gap to meet the operational demands of the NAVAIR,” says Ken Anderson, Vice President, Universal Synaptics.
IFDIS and Voyager (Universal Synaptics’ other easily transportable intermittent fault detection system) are currently being utilized at Fort Campbell Army base to test battle-damaged aircraft such as the Black Hawk and Apache helicopters; Letterkenny Army Depot is evaluating the Voyager for the wiring harnesses for the Patriot Missile; and tests are scheduled for the A-10 Warthog, both LRUs and airframe wiring, at Hill Air Force Base.