November 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.

2003 CTMA Symposium

Mark your calendars for attending the 2003 CTMA Symposium, April 1-3 in Salt Lake City.  The theme is "Issues Confronting the 21st Century Depot" and will include keynote speakers from the front lines of depot work, presentations of ongoing projects, and workshops to identify new initiatives.  Several new projects resulted from our last Symposium, and we expect the same results next year.  Three confirmed plenary speakers include Vice Admiral Keith W. Lippert, Director of the Defense Logistics Agency who will discuss providing parts support to maintenance activities; and Colonel Robert E. Gerlaugh, Commanding Officer of the Marine Corp Multicommodity Maintenance Center, Barstow, CA, and Dr. James Meng, Executive Director at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Keyport, WA, both of who will address technical/manufacturing hurdles they face in their depot facilities.  Stayed tuned for further information.

Ongoing Project News

Three CTMA Projects Recognized by National Awards

At the recent DoD Maintenance Symposium and Exhibition, one of our first CTMA projects, “Electronic Performance Support: Maintenance Mentoring” received an award as the best new idea during a competition with 6 other ideas from a wide range of the aerospace and maintenance industry. The project was presented by Major Vernon Caldwell of the Naval Aircraft Maintenance Training Marine Unit.  Major Caldwell showed that the project resulted in a 30% reduction in repair time with 100% accuracy.  Only a minimal training (20 minutes) was required and there was a high level of technician acceptance.  This original MMS project has led to a current phase II effort currently being undertaken at Cherry Point Naval Air Depot and led by Mike Gnam. 

At the upcoming Defense Manufacturing Conference in Dallas, two of our current projects are the recipients of the Defense Manufacturing Excellence Award, sponsored by The National Center for Advanced Technologies. These are highly prestigious awards and help illustrate that we are making a difference in our collaborative work between industry and the Department of Defense.

The two projects being awarded are:

“High Throughput Production Processing of 5-axis Aluminum Components” 

Team members include the technology provider, Technology Answers, the machine tool maker, Cincinnati Machines, and several end users, Sikorsky Aircraft Division of United Technologies, the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, the Naval Air Depot at Cherry Point, and Boeing Aircraft

Many aircraft structural components are machined from slabs of aluminum or titanium. They are lightweight components where most of the material is removed, leaving thin-walled pockets. Some have walls or other features that are non-orthogonal and therefore require either multiple setups with custom working fixtures on 3 axis machine tools or simple front side - back side setups on 5 axis machines. That simple process looks like an easy choice but CNC programs for 5 axis machines are complex, requiring programmers with special expertise and consuming costly machine time for program checkout and correction. In that tradeoff of process complexity and time versus program development complexity and prove-out time, 5 axis capability frequently loses.

The HITHRU team has developed Cimskil™, a Computer Aided Process Planning (CAPP) tool to address a key aspect of the issue of long turn-around time for aircraft in maintenance. The US’ aging aircraft fleet frequently needs replacement parts for which little or no manufacturing information exists. In those instances, maintenance depots have no recourse but to reverse engineer the part, create a technical data package for manufacturing and then make the part in their organic manufacturing facilities, a lengthy process. Cimskil automates much of the work currently done manually by NC programmers using traditional Computer Aided Manufacturing CAM tools, reducing programming and process qualification time. Furthermore, the NC programs produced use high productivity processes to improve shop productivity. Programming productivity increases as high as 90% and shop productivity increases a much as 75% have been achieved.

This public-private partnership resulted in documented increases in productivity and reductions in cycle time. Because both end users and technology developers were engaged in the collaboration, rapid deployment and use of the technology will result in increased competitiveness by the industrial participants as well as increased readiness by the DoD participants.

Laser Engineered Net Shaping™ (LENS™)

Laser Engineered Net ShapingTM (LENSTM) technology is being used to address the need of the Department of Defense (DoD) for identifying sophisticated repair and overhaul techniques for its depots.   The NCMS CTMA project brought together technology provider companies, Optomec, Inc, and Laserfare, Inc with technology end user, Anniston Army Depot.  This LENSTM technology employs a high-powered laser beam (cwNd:YAG) focused on a part or substrate where metallic powder is injected under computer guidance to build three-dimensional layers until the repair is complete.  In particular, LENSTM was used for the repair of gas turbine engine parts for the Abrams M1 Tank. LENSTM was found to be a rapid and cost-effective long-term solution, and was demonstrated 
to generate more that $6.3 million in annual cost avoidance for Anniston Army Maintenance Depot (ANAD). 

We welcome the following company into NCMS membership and their participation in the CTMA program:

The Aerostructures Corporation

Aerostructures is a global aerospace company with a long history of designing and building large airframe structures for customers world-wide.  They are a supplier to every major prime contractor.

www.vought.com

 

Project Opportunities

Remote - Large Surface Area Inspection

Objective:  Utilizing enhanced visualization techniques, implement a Remote Large Surface Area Inspection solution within depot and industry sites, where access to surface areas targeted for inspection and/or maintenance is difficult, and/or, where increased safety measures can be devised by utilizing a remote inspection solution, minimizing immediate exposure of dangerous materials to personnel.

  • Large surface area inspection with hard to access ‘human” visualization points

  • Enclosed surface area inspections (large and small) with hard to access human visualization points (inspection of enclosed gas tanks and/or pipes, where both difficulty of access and increased personnel safety in potentially hazardous areas )

  • Complimentary surface, component, or materials area visualization targeted for repair and maintenance where;

    • Rapid prototype modeling of replacement parts (utilizing CAD or other design software) targeting the area of attention may be of value in deriving the right fitting elements more efficiently and quickly

    • Materials evaluation of the area requiring repair due to stress factors known and unknown, to analyze the cause and effects conditions that may have caused or contributed to the failure.

Targeted inspection/maintenance areas which would best benefit from a solution of this nature:

  • Enclosed piping (minimum of 6” in diameter)

  • The inside of larger gas tanks or other larger enclosed containers

  • Large external ship/submarine/plane hulls

  • Large internal hull or surface areas

  • Obstructed areas or obstructed surface areas

  • Any “large” surface area requiring visual inspection

This new project has broad applicability in CTMA related activities, and has “breakthrough” potential in utilizing new technology to enhance the quality of inspection and maintenance initiatives, in increasing safety for personnel, and in contributing substantially in the elimination of costs, or costly errors.  If you are interested in designing and participating in this project, contact Chuck Ryan, chuckr@ncms.org, 734-995-4905.

New Project Ideas (click on topics to see descriptions)

1 Reconfigurable Tooling Systems
2 OptiCam: Optical Generation of 3D Models for Computer-Aided Manufacturing
3 Robotic Painting Optimization
4 Electronics Lead-Free Assembly: Isotropically Conductive Adhesives
5 Laser Engineering Net Shaping, II
6 Laser Coating Removal
7 Light Armored Vehicle Condition Based Maintenance
8 Remote Turbine Engine Borescope Inspection
9 Flat Wire Deposition Process
10 Safety Line Track Manufacturing Process
11 Advanced Inspection and Repair Cell for Radomes

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.


Copyright 2002
National Center for Manufacturing Sciences