September 2000

Welcome to The CTMA Connector, a monthly newsletter designed to provide news and ideas about the Commercial Technologies for Maintenance Activities (CTMA) program. As you should know, the CTMA program is a joint DoD/NCMS effort promoting collaborative technology development between industry and the DoD maintenance and repair facilities. This newsletter will give you selected highlights of ongoing projects, serve as a forum for promoting new project ideas, and share 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 this more useful.

Ongoing Project News:

Laser Engineered Net ShapingTM

Members of the Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENSTM) collaboration recently toured selected maintenance depots involved with the CTMA program. The purpose of the tour was to create an awareness of the LENSTM technology, specifically the existing LENSTM project, among depot personnel charged with repair and maintenance. More important, the tour was aimed at seeking applications and depot participation for the next phase of the program, LENSTM II. Representatives from NCMS, LaserFare, and Optomec visited Jacksonville Naval Depot, Kings Bay Trident Sub Base, Albany Marine Corp Logistics Base, and Warner Robins Air Logistics Center. The team is currently working with Anniston Army Depot on LENSTM I.

At each stop on the tour, the LENSTM team gave a briefing to the depot personnel. This was followed, typically, by a visit to the shop floor to look at specific applications where the depot is in need of such a technology. Many applications were identified at each facility; however, it quickly became apparent that the greatest opportunity for a rapid return on investment was the application of LENSTM to the repair of parts that are currently being discarded for lack of a repair methodology. Such is the current situation at Anniston. Each depot identified specific parts for application of this technology and, in some cases, sample parts will be sent to LaserFare for validation of the application.

This LENSTM team will visit each of the CTMA depots in the next three months to create the same awareness, identify depot partners, and develop an initial scope of work for LENSTM II. NCMS maintains a LENSTM website at http://lens.ncms.org. For additional information or to learn how you can participate on the program, contact Mike Gnam, 734-995-4971.

High Throughput Production Processing of Five Axis Aluminum Components

The industry team met at Cincinnati Machines for a technology demonstration of the product. The CIMSkill system produced a CNC file for the test part in a timed trial of 1 hour and 50 minutes. Programming experts estimated it would take about 100 hours to do the job using conventional methods. The system also optimizes machine capability utilization and produces consistently high quality parts on the first try. We are planning a public demonstration after the International Machine Tool Show (IMTS), possibly in the Fall workshop Series, October 16 and 17 at The Dearborn Inn. DoD and depot maintenance key contacts will be invited, and the productivity improvements will be highlighted. NCMS Contact: Tony Haynes, 734-995-4930.

Rapid Response Computer-Aided Manufacture (RRCAM) of Printed Wiring Boards

The project champion, Parelec Inc., has developed a family of inks, known by the trade name Parmod™, which are used to print circuit traces on polymer substrates and are thermally cured to pure, high-conductivity metal. The solderable circuits are compatible with commonly used flexible and rigid polymer substrates. This new capability makes possible the printing of circuits directly from computer-aided design (CAD) files, eliminating expensive photolithography and the wet chemistry associated with circuit board manufacture.

Parelec and NCMS are looking for additional maintenance depot participants who have a need for this technology. Specifically, the project requires product designs for the production of samples to qualify the new technology in various applications. Actual products are preferred, although test vehicles will be considered. Ideal design formats include CAD/Gerber files, printed wiring board (PWB) layout files, schematics, and bills of material.

Participants will not be asked to produce or do anything outside the scope of their standard operations with board fabricators. Participants will provide the product design package, from which Parelec will fabricate the PWBs and return them to participants for assembly and test. Beta site installations of the equipment in working environments are also planned under the project.

To investigate the potential for your participation in this project, contact Mike Gnam, 734-995-4971.

Recently Approved Projects:

Maintenance Activity Mentoring Systems

DoD Partners - NADEP Cherry Point, Barstow MC3
Industry Partners - General Motors, Intelliworxx, Didactics, EER Systems
This project represents the second phase of a program aimed at field-testing maintenance-activity mentoring systems within the DoD and industry. The project will consist of three segments: two studies designed to develop and deploy distributed learning technology for selected applications, each using a different hardware platform (portable tablet computers, desktop PC), and a project evaluation segment designed to objectively assess the performance results of each approach. The project is expected to provide DoD and industry with valuable knowledge about technology-based, human-based, and workplace-based variables that principally influence the effectiveness of distributed learning technologies for maintenance applications and identify the associated costs of the two approaches.
NCMS Contact: Connie Philips, 734-995-7051

Process Substitution Methodology for the Repair of Composite Materials

DoD Partners - Corpus Christi Army Depot, Ogden ALC, Oklahoma City ALC
Industry Partners - AvPro, Kestrel Aircraft, General Atomics
The objective of this project is to enable and demonstrate processing science technologies at DoD advanced composite repair depots. The deliverable will include equipment, procedures, and training. AvPro will provide a complete system to enable a repair depot to use material state properties (viscosity and degree of cure) to manage repair processes. A complete system capable of achieving field repair will be provided, including training and demonstration on DoD weapons system components.
NCMS Contact: Chuck Ryan, 734-995-4905

DoD Participation Requested: Near-Dry Machining of Aluminum

In the automotive industry and DoD maintenance activities, aluminum is a strategic material. Until recently, machining it economically without coolant has been an elusive goal. Current work in dry machining of aluminum has led to a technology that shows great promise. Near-Dry Machining of Aluminum (N-DMA) is now offered as a commercial technology that has been integrated with machine tools and comes very close to achieving the advantages of the dry machining. The application of near-dry aluminum machining technology offers the potential to eliminate the consumption of millions of gallons of coolant per year. In Germany and Japan, N-DMA technology has been reduced to commercial practice. However, to date, the technology has not been integrated with commercial machine tools in the U.S., nor has it been piloted to any great degree in this country.

In N-DMA, a micro-mist metered in drops per minute is continuously applied to the cutting tool from inside the spindle. The chips produced by N-DMA are dry to the touch. Filtering and recycling coolant is unnecessary. Cutting tools for N-DMA are available and, if necessary, chips are expelled with air. Though more heat must be controlled compared to machining with coolant, aluminum alloys can be machined at high speed, causing the chips to carry away most of the heat. The key issues are life cycle economics and the influence on performance from long-term accumulation of chips and dust on machine tool components. These are the issues that will be resolved by this pilot project.

Benefits

  • A potential 15 percent reduction in machining costs due to the absence of coolant

  • The elimination of the cost and complexity in the disposal of expended coolant and wet chips.

  • The potential environmental savings of millions of gallons of coolant consumed annually.

  • A health hazard reduction in manufacturing plants due to a reduction in coolants.

Role of DoD Participant:

The project will be piloted at Machining Enterprises, Inc. (MEI), Warren, Michigan, setting up and demonstrating the near-dry machining of aluminum. DoD participants will:

  1. Visit the MEI site on selected dates to observe near-dry machining process and the equipment as used in production.

  2. Work with the project team for defining test parts to be machined by near-dry process, and providing comparative data from current machining process used at their facility.

  3. Attend two workshops at which near-dry vs. wet performance data would be presented (one meeting in the middle of the project, the other at the end).

  4. Provide analysis of the potential benefits that could be obtained from using near-dry machining in their facilities.

Deliverables

  1. Evaluation of near-dry machining technology, including quantifiable benefits, and list of equipment suppliers.

  2. Test results clarifying the benefits that can be expected from near-dry machine in production environments.

  3. Documentation of all test results including specifying the performance envelope for dry machining of aluminum.

Other News:

The CTMA website has recently been refurbished. The site offers information about ongoing projects and descriptions of the DoD facilities involved in the program. It also includes a forum for new project ideas. Please check out the new ideas listing and let us know your interest! http://ctma.ncms.org/new_project_ideas.htm

New Project Ideas: (click on topics to see descriptions)

  1. Equipment Parts Information Management System

  2. Honing APU's

  3. UV Surface Preparation

  4. Oxy Fuel Cutting Alternatives

  5. Radio Frequency Locators

  6. Sensing Electrical Relay Failures

  7. Reliability Based Maintenance

  8. On-site Paint Destruction

  9. Kinetic Spray Processing

  10. Hard Chrome Process Improvement

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 the information in this newsletter does not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the government; no official endorsement should be inferred.

TM LENS is a registered trademark of Sandia National Laboratories.