April 2002

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 listmanager@ncms.org with "subscribe CTMANewsletter" or "unsubscribe CTMANewsletter" in the subject line.

Ongoing Project News

Results from the 2002 NCMS/CTMA Working Symposium on Sustainment: Strengthening America's Military Readiness.
April 16 - 18, 2002, OMNI Hotel, Jacksonville, FL

With 220 participants, the 3rd Annual CTMA Symposium was a chance to learn about the needs of the Department of Defense, review ongoing projects in several DoD programs, and to propose new project ideas for consideration by all the sponsoring organizations. Our Symposium partners this year were the DoD Sustainment and Readiness Subpanel (responsible for the DoD Manufacturing Technology programs), the Joint Council on Aging Aircraft, the Navy Repair Technology Program, and the Joint Technology Exchange Group.

The Needs of the Department of Defense:

A panel of experts provided an overview of the needs of the DoD in Sustainment, Maintenance and Repair.

Lieutenant General Charles Mahan, United States Army Deputy Chief of Staff, G-4, outlined the Army Transformation Charter that included:

1. Enhancing the Army's strategic responsiveness and meeting deployment timelines

2. Reducing the combat zone footprint by:
   a. Exploiting advanced technology (improved fuel efficiency, use of GPS)
   b. Using common platforms or multimodal platforms

3. Reducing the cost of logistics without reducing warfighting capability or readiness using for example:
   a. Balanced acquisition and sustainment
   b. Embedded diagnostics and prognostics

Colonel Michael Carpenter, United States Air Force and Chair of the Joint Council on Aging Aircraft, disclosed the DoD Aircraft Depot Maintenance Requirements in many areas including:

1. Structures
   a. Advanced Nondestructive Inspection Techniques
   b. Radome Repair
   c. Composites Repair and/or Manufacturing

2. Engines
   a. Enabling Life Extension Capabilities
   b. Health Management
   c. Component Repair

3. Avionics/ Software
   a. Obsolescence Support Tools
   b. Collaborative Software Maintenance Capabilities
   c. Improved Component Testers

4. Subsystems and Wiring
   a. Depot Flow
   b. Aircraft Wiring
   c. Integral Tank and Fuel Cell Repair

Colonel Carpenter summarized his briefing:

1. Commercial technology paces our cost avoidance strategy (acquisition & sustainment)
2. Key investment areas: NDI, health management, depot flow, & parts obsolescence management
3. Need forward leaning investment strategy (emerging sustainment problems)
4. Gas turbine engine O&S costs burden the warfighter (tanks, ships & aircraft)

Captain Charles Doty, Commander Submarine Force US Atlantic Fleet, discussed submarine maintenance and repair issues. He identified needs in the following areas:

1. Component overhauls - primarily mechanical systems such as valves and pumps
2. Replacement of large electronic components
3. Preservation of submarine sails and tanks.

Mr. Rodger Vandveer, Technical Deputy for Combat Systems for the US Navy Surface Fleet in the Atlantic, reviewed issues being faced in the maintenance and repair of ships. They need:

1. New technologies to coincide with their new capabilities.
2. New technologies for improving their current capabilities.
3. Assurance of proper logistics support.
4. Ability to train the sailors to operate and maintain new systems.
5. Technology must support all their requirements.

Ken Trammell, the Executive Director of the Marine Corp Materiels Command presented the needs of the Marine Corp during a luncheon address.

The Symposium had five concurrent tracks to review current ongoing projects. The five tracks were:

1. Metals
2. Non-metals
3. Electronics
4. Concurrent Engineering/Advanced Business Practices
5. Green Manufacturing

A total of 72 projects were presented in these tracks outlining the objective and status of each effort.

Workshop Results

To try to identify new project ideas, workshops followed the five tracks in each area except Green Manufacturing. An additional 29 new project ideas were presented during the workshops. A facilitated open discussion in each workshop resulted in the following recommendations for new projects:

Metals

1. Next Generation Inspection System project extension integrated with laser deposition.
2. Near dry deep hole drilling of steel.
3. Reverse engineering for legacy systems where no technical data package is available.
4. Repair of thin structures with very low energy input (up to 500 watts average power).
5. Material properties of aluminum rapid prototype parts that replace high cost, high priority components.
6. Non-Destructive Inspection for thick aluminum structures (focusing upon laminar defects).
7. Life Extension technologies (prognostic maintenance).
8. 2-D permanent metal marking.
9. Thin, high temperature resistant gaskets.
10. Additive manufacturing for repair and rework.

Non-Metals

1. Machinability and Tool Life Data for Al Metal Matrix Composites
   a. Cost-effective machining technology for MMC components
   b. Depot customers, contractors for specific components and tooling setups

2. Repair of Composite Armor
   a. High-integrity repair process for Composite Integral Armor
   b. CAV ATD, Crusader

3. Novel Methods for Joining Ceramics & Composites with Microwaves
   a. Uses 15% of convent. microwave power
   b. Joining ceramic tubes handling ethylene, methanol & ethanol, steam 
       reformers, radiant burner tubes for furnaces

4. Agile Composite Sandwich Damage Repair Technology Using LOM and 
   Reconfigurable Tooling
   a. Cost-effective replacement of legacy components in small lots
   b. Large structures with local damage

5. Nano-composites for (Cavitation) Erosion-Resistant Coatings  
   a. Engineered Surfaces Using Spray-on Coatings of PUR and Carbon Nanotubes
   b. V-22 Blades 

6. Direct Part Marking
   a. Better, permanent part tracking
   b. Tool or production components (cutting tools, cylinder heads, etc.)

7. Inspection and Repair Prep. Cell
   a. Eliminate multiple manual operations
   b. Capture part repair process history
   c. KC-135 Nose Radome

8. Shaped Hole Machining Technology for Cooling Holes in Turbine Blades

Electronics

1. Improved Conformal Coating Removal/Recoat Process
2. Green PWB Re-Manufacturing Process Development
3. Secure Collaborative Software Maintenance Tool
4. Wiring Integrity with Automated Diagnosis and Prognosis Tools

Concurrent Engineering/Advanced Business Practices

1. Lean Sustainment Initiative
2. Remote Turbine Engine Borescope Inspection
3. Light Armored Vehicle Condition Based Maintenance
4. Electronic Signature Capture
5. Remote Technical Assistance to Medical Equipment
6. Reconfigurable Tooling
7. Collaborative Visualization
8. Ultra-Intelligent Gas Turbine Engine
9. Maintenance Infotronics for Manufacturing
10. Optical Generation for 3-D Models for CAM
11. Improved NDI Techniques
12. Field Activity Support and Technology Transfer

Next Steps

1. Getting Started: Capture the essence of the project
   1. On one page, each project team needs to submit by end of April:
      1. Project Title
      2. Statement of Problem
      3. Proposed Solution
      4. Deliverables anticipated
      5. Quantifiable Benefits
      6. Anticipated Participants (DoD, Industry Partners, other government or academic facilities)
      7. Estimated Cost and Duration
         1. Total Cost Estimate:
         2. Cost Sharing Estimates:
         3. Requested Contract Funding anticipated
2. Send one-pager to Chuck Ryan who will forward it to each sponsoring organization
3. The project ideas will be reviewed amongst the sponsoring organizations deciding:
   1. Who is taking the lead (or how we are going to collaborate)
   2. What is required for project team follow-up (each organization has its’ unique requirements)
   3. Tasking and Timing
4. The project team champions will be informed as to needs for project development and submission (or that there isn’t a program fit for their project idea)
5. Project team will take the lead following the requirements and priorities of the sponsoring organization

Requirements for CTMA Project Ideas

1. Hurdles
   1. What new manufacturing technology is being developed and implemented?
      1. Not a mechanism for circumventing DoD procurement process.
   2. Is there cross-service involvement?
      1. For broader dissemination of technology
   3. Is there sufficient industrial interest?
      1. Greater than 2:1 cost share

Process Steps for CTMA

1. Take one-pager and market project idea to others within industry and depot community (CTMA Connector) to more fully form project team
2. Expand one-pager into 5-7 page concept paper and include:
   1. Joint Industry/DoD interest and needs
   2. Cost/Benefits summary sketched out
   3. ROI
3. Participant roles defined
4. Letter of endorsement from depot command
5. Qualification of in-kind by NCMS
6. Submission of concept to OSD
7. 10 day turnaround for approval

If you are interested in participating in the definition of any of these possible project ideas, please e-mail Chuck Ryan.

New Project Ideas (click on topics to see descriptions)

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.