2004
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.
2004
CTMA Symposium
March 29 - April 1
"A Practical Roadmap to Manufacturing And
Repair"
Emory Conference Center
Hotel
Atlanta, GA
We welcome
the following organizations as participants in the CTMA program:
CTA, Inc.
www.ctatoday.com
H&R Technology Inc.
H&R Technology is the creator and owner of patented and proprietary
processes for energy source assisted low heat input, low distortion
metal flat wire deposition. They also are a provider of manufacturing
services and systems for production and repair of metal parts utilizing
its PMD™ technology.
www.hrtechnology.com
PCC Structurals, Inc.
PCC Structurals is a leader in manufacturing large, complex,
high-quality structural investment castings for critical applications in
the aerospace market. Their expertise also includes the industrial gas
turbine market while they continue to remain an acknowledged cornerstone
in the casting industry for medical, general industrial, alloy and other
commercial applications.
www.pccstructurals.com
Support Systems Associates, Inc.
SSAI is a leader in supplying engineering, logistics, management,
and technical support to the Government and industry. ISO 9001:2000
Certified.
www.ssai.org
Vision Solutions International Inc.
Vision Solutions offers industrial machine vision for robot
guidance applications.
www.vsi3d.com
New
Project Approved:
Replacement for Hexavalent Chromium in Surface Finishing Processes
DoD
participants:
Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Naval Air Depot Cherry Point,
Propulsion Engineering Working Group (PEWG)
There has been a concerted effort for a number of years to find
substitutes for hexavalent chromium processes, driven primarily by
toxicity concerns. Despite many successes, there remain applications
for which no suitable substitute for hard chromium has yet been
developed, and for which there is no immediate prospect of a
replacement. An example is the application of coatings to the insides
of long tubes, for which line-of-sight processes are impractical. The
persistence of such processes, despite well over a decade of attempts at
replacement, have convinced most process engineers that hard chromium
plating is going to remain a practical necessity for the foreseeable
future.
Engineering controls have made workplaces that carry out hard chromium
electroplating considerably safer than in the past. Nevertheless, even
with the best existing control systems, the health and environmental
cost, risk and potential liability associated with the use of hexavalent
chromium remains a major concern.
This
project is based on the recent development of a new type of trivalent
chromium electroplating process that will provide an alternative to the
use of hexavalent chromium to achieve hard functional coatings.
Hexavalent chromium refers to chromium in the +6 oxidation state,
typically associated with processes such as hard chrome electroplating
that are intended to provide a mechanically tough, corrosion resistant
coating for demanding applications. Chromium is also electroplated
using a milder electroplating bath containing chromium in the +3
oxidation state (trivalent chromium), but such coatings do not typically
exhibit the same mechanical properties, and are used primarily for
decorative applications.
The
project objective is to optimize the new process to meet military and
industrial specifications, and to evaluate its performance.
NCMS
project manager is Paul Chalmer,
paulc@ncms.org, 734-995-4911.
Kudos:
To Pat Bergen, Naval
Undersea Warfare Center Keyport, for his selection as the recipient for
the 2003 Cheapskate Prize for Affordability. Mike Lehman of NUWC Keyport
reports that this award recognizes innovative and exemplary Department
of the Navy scientists and engineers who have had the greatest impact on
the future availability of affordable technologies for naval forces.
This is awarded to personnel who have demonstrated cost savings through
science and technology projects of the highest technical quality,
directly relevant to naval war fighting needs. This award is for Pat's
efforts in the development and implementation of new automated repair
and rapid prototyping technologies resulting in significant cost
reductions and higher quality repairs directly benefiting the Fleet now
and into the future.
New Project Ideas (click on topics to see descriptions), if
you are interested, contact the project manager listed.
