July 2003

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

We welcome the following organizations as a participant in the CTMA program:

Collins & Aikman Corporation

Collins & Aikman Corporation is a global leader in cockpit modules and automotive floor and acoustic systems and a leading supplier of instrument panels, automotive fabric, plastic-based trim, and convertible top systems.

 

Henkel Electronic, Conductive Die Attach Division

Henkel Electronic, Conductive Die Attach is a specialized division committed to providing specialty adhesives for electronics assembling and packaging.

 

Ongoing Project News

Technology Roadmapping for the Marine Corps Maintenance Centers

NCMS is facilitating a technology roadmapping project with the Marine Corps Maintenance Centers at Albany and Barstow. 

The purpose of this effort is to give the Marine Corp maintenance depot community a clear, focused vision of their production technology needs for the near term future.  Benefits of this endeavor will include, not only the resultant set of roadmaps described below, but also the alignment and buy-in of all relevant personnel because they, as a group, provided the input and conclusions for the end products.  Additional benefits include the ability to have constancy of purpose and mission across the time boundaries of commanding officer terms.  These roadmaps will also become the basis for generating ideas for new projects for the CTMA program.

The Maintenance Depot Roadmap addresses four topics:

  1. Definition and Scope. (“Know-why” we are creating the capabilities):  Set the strategic direction for the organization, define key customer segments and identify a prioritized list of customer drivers (the needs and applications most important to customers).  Identify competitors, competitive approaches, and potential partners.

  2. Depot Capability Roadmap (“Know-what” capabilities we will build over time):  What capabilities/characteristics/features are most important?  Link customer/application drivers to specific capabilities that will be required over time.  Set multi-year targets for capabilities.  Define the architecture of the facility (the framework in which the capabilities will be implemented). 

  3. Technology roadmap (“Know-how” we will build or acquire the needed capabilities):  What technologies are most important?  Link capability drivers to technologies and their development or acquisition over time.  Identify key technology investments to maintain competitiveness.  The technology roadmap covers development and acquisition of both hardware and skills.

  4. Summary and Action plan (“To-do,” the key action plans required to develop or acquire the needed technologies):  What resources and investments are needed? Plan projects with the highest priorities.  Are technology investments in the most important areas?  Identify and track risk areas.

The results of the roadmapping session is scheduled to be presented by Ken Trammell, Chief Operating Officer of the Marine Corps Logistics Command, at the 2004 CTMA Symposium being held in Atlanta, March 30 through April 1.

New Project Ideas Seek Participants

 

Friction Stir Welding

 

A meeting is being held on Tuesday, August 12 at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL to develop a project in Friction Stir Welding (FSW).  The maturity of the FSW process has elevated the solid state welding process into DoD and aerospace manufacturing applications.  FSW is currently being used for Advanced Amphibious Assault Vehicle manufacturing, and is also being considered for other military ground vehicles as well.  In the aerospace sector, the FSW process is being implemented into the Space Shuttle External Tank manufacturing program at the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.  The first production welds were completed earlier this year.

The proposed project objective is to develop the friction stir welding process for depot applications and validate its utility. 

Two applications are anticipated: 

  1. welding a rim on old style F-15 landing gear doors so they may be used on either old or new style aircraft and,

  2. repair of skin cracks followed by bonding a patch

The NASA agency has made great strides in perfecting the traditional FSW process using single piece pin-tools as well as the new self-reacting pin-tool concept.  The current FSW development program will culminate in August when full-scale hardware measuring 27.5 feet in diameter will be welded using the self-reacting FSW pin-tool.  This project supports the metal tank fabrication element for the Next Generation Launch Technologies (NGLT) Program.

A new concept of solid state welding is being investigated called Thermal Stir Welding (TSW).  This welding concept separates the heating, stirring and forging elements of friction stir welding so that each can be controlled independently.

Questions should  be directed to Gary Burkart, gburkart@charter.net  or 612 839-4567.

 

Trivalent Chromium Process

NCMS, together with technology developer Faraday Technology, metal finishing specialists at Tinker Air Force Base and Cherry Point Naval Air Depot, and the Propulsion Environmental Working Group (PEWG) are forming a project to investigate the possibility of replacing highly toxic hexavalent chromium with a safer alternative involving trivalent chromium.

Until recently, the use of trivalent chromium technology has been restricted to decorative chromium plating, since it has not been possible to achieve the coating thickness and hardness required for functional chromium plating applications.  A new process that uses pulse plating as an alternative to the standard direct current method, and a newly developed plating bath, is now being used by Faraday Technology for industrial applications.  The new project will evaluate the potential of the process for military applications.

Anyone interested in learning more about the project can contact Paul Chalmer at NCMS, (734) 995-4911 or paulc@ncms.org for additional details.

 
Acoustic Emissions Monitoring for Diesel Engine Preventative Maintenance 
 
Acoustic Emissions (AE) is a new product for Predictive Maintenance and Preventive Maintenance consideration.  AE monitoring is a similar process to vibration analysis but using higher frequencies.  A potential project specifically for the early failure detection of rotating components on diesel engines is being investigated. 

Interested Depots and Industry Participants should contact Steve Hale, steveh@ncms.org, 734-995-2195.

 

New Project Ideas (click on topics to see descriptions)

 

1 Reconfigurable Tooling Systems
2 Rapid Manufacturing using Precision Metal Origami
3 Coating Removal & Surface Prep
4 Light Armored Vehicle Condition Based Maintenance
5 Remote Turbine Engine Borescope Inspection
6 Safety Line Track Manufacturing Process
7 Advanced Inspection and Repair Cell for Radomes
8 Six Sigma Product Quality
9 Automated Test Equipment Software Analysis and Test Program Set Translation Tool
10 Synthetic Instrumentation Insertion for Automated Test Equipment (ATE)
11 Refurbishing and Extending Sealant Life
12 Thick Composite Structural Repair
13 Friction Stir Welding

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.


Copyright 2003
National Center for Manufacturing Sciences