May 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

Follow-up to the 2002 NCMS/CTMA Working Symposium on Sustainment: Strengthening America's Military Readiness.
Over 25 one-page project ideas were submitted in response to the CTMA Symposium in Jacksonville. The co-sponsoring organizations met and reviewed each submission for relevance to each programs' requirements. Of the one-page ideas submitted, several were deemed relevant to the CTMA program and are currently being pursued as possible CTMA projects. Please refer to the new project ideas chart at the end of the newsletter.  If you have interests in participating in these efforts, please send a note to Chuck Ryan.

Two ongoing CTMA projects were the subject of publications in the past month.

The April 13th issue of "The Economist" (http://economist.com) featured an article entitled "Mobile warfare", which describes the essence of a program to fabricate and repair parts near the point of need. As weapon systems continue to serve beyond their intended life, part obsolescence and availability becomes an increasing challenge for asset sustainment, compromising military readiness. The Mobile Parts Hospital (MPH) is a program being validated by the National Automotive Center, which operates within the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive & Armaments Command (TACOM). The CTMA project, Laser Engineered Net Shaping^TM (LENS^TM) was fortunate to be selected by TACOM as a metal part fabrication and repair tool for the Mobile Parts Hospital (MPH). The MPH Agile Manufacturing Cell (trailer) is currently on tour to demonstrate program functionality.  LENS^TM part fabrication demonstrations on the MPH trailer were performed for the first time at the U.S. Army Ordnance Symposium held in May at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds (Maryland). The CTMA LENS^TM project participants include Anniston Army Depot, Optomec, United Technologies (Pratt & Whitney), and Laser Fare. Contact Mike Gnam, for more information.

"Modern Machine Shop", in its April 2002 issue highlighted the CTMA High Throughput Manufacturing project with an article entitled "Empowering the Programmer"  (http://www.mmsonline.com/). The article details productivity gains realized from automating the NC programming necessary for the machining of parts.  Partners on this project include Cincinnati Machine, Technology Answers, Sikorsky Aircraft, Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, and the Cherry Point Naval Air Depot. Contact Tony Haynes for more information.

Project Opportunities

Laser Coating Removal System for Helicopter Blade Refurbishment

NADEP Cherry Point must refurbish on average, approximately 150 main rotor blades each month. To refurbish each blade, workers must remove at least the topcoat (paint) from each blade. Because these blades use lightweight fiberglass composite substrates, coatings must be removed by hand sanding. The process requires an extensive amount of tedious labor in a dusty, uncomfortable environment. Workers complain of repetitive stress injuries and fatigue. Lost time is significant. Because coatings contain toxic chemicals, personnel must wear extensive personal protection equipment to avoid dust inhalation. Conventional paint removal techniques, such as chemicals, plastic media blasting, or glass (sand) blasting, are known to damage the substrate and, therefore, are not viable. Hand sanding itself can also cause damage to the substrate resulting in delays due the additional rework operations required. Hand sanding is, however, the only coating removal method currently approved for blade refurbishment operations.

The laser coating removal system being developed is a media-free method for removing paint or cleaning surfaces. The beam of intense laser light focuses enough energy at the work surface to vaporize a thin layer of coating with each pulse. A concussive shock-wave occurs simultaneously with each pulse; this helps propel residual paint or contaminant particles away from the work surface. Thus, each pulse of laser light removes a thin layer of paint, scale or other contamination at the spot the pulse touches the work surface. The contact is so brief that, for example although the top layer of paint is vaporized in the impact area, very little heat is transmitted to the substrate beneath the paint. Most of this heat is carried away from the work surface by the vapors and dislodged particles.

Because it is media-free, requiring neither chemical nor abrasive assistance, the laser system is potentially the most environmentally friendly stripping/cleaning method in the industry.

The current team of participants include Sikorsky Aircraft, General Lasertronics Corporation, Penn State ARL, NADEP Cherry Point, Hill AFB and CCAD. The initial focus of the project will be to strip paint off helicopter blades. As the project emerges, participants with other applications are being sought.

The laser de-coating system will be used to de-coat or decontaminate various work surfaces during routine maintenance operations. Cleaning and decontamination of standard hand tools to allow their continuing use in the nuclear environment has been identified as a high priority task. However, the laser technology itself can be used for a wide range of other stripping and surface treatment operations.

The following applications have been laser-tested with generally positive results, and often with surprisingly good results.

• De-paint/clean building materials, including wood, concrete, marble, bricks, other masonry
• Graffiti removal from above building materials, and others
• Grease, oils, hydraulic fluids, including "baked on" fluids
• Aircraft appliqué coating (3M product)
• Rust, scale, oxidation from metals, including removal of "alpha case" from newly mfg titanium
• Pre-bond surface treatment of titanium, aluminum and composite materials
• Decontamination (including radioactive decontamination) of lead and stainless steel transfer containers; removes thin layers of contaminated lead
• Decontamination (including radioactive decontamination) and surface treatment of metal parts, tools, etc.
• Removal of contaminated vitrified waste products from stainless steel containers
• Removal of "Topcoat" (we think this is actually a corrosion coat) used inside KC-135 wing tanks with no damage to fuel tank substrates or sealants

Those interested in participating in this project should contact Gary Burkart, 612-839-4567.

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.

^TM LENS is a registered trademark of Sandia National Laboratories.