 |
|
February 2005 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. 2005 CTMA Symposium "Where Ideas Become Reality"
April 18 - 21 at the Tacoma Sheraton, Tacoma, Washington.
Keynote speakers include: Congressman Norm Dicks, Washington 6th District and a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee,
Vice Admiral Phillip Balisle, Commander, Naval Sea Systems Command, and David Pauling, Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Maintenance Policy, Programs, Resources, and Material Readiness
Join us for networking, technical project reviews in four concurrent tracks, and putting forth your project ideas for possible inclusion in the CTMA program.
Information and Registration at http://ctma.ncms.org
Seeking Interested CTMA Project Participants Repair, Upgrade and Life Extension of Super Alloy Components using Transient Liquid Phase Bonding (TLP) Statement of Problem: Current repair and rework procedures for nickel base superalloy hot section parts of gas turbines are usually carried out by GTA Welding and are limited to “low stress regions” of the components. This limitation is caused by the inferior mechanical properties of the weld associated with the inherent difficulty of welding high g’ volume fraction nickel base superalloys. Some of the contributing factors include the difference in structure between the weld region, the heat affected zone (HAZ) and the base metal as well as HAZ micro fissuring. Proposed Solution: The proposed project focuses on the development of a Transient Liquid Phase (TLP) bonding process to repair superalloy components. TLP bonding offers great advantages over existing weld repair and brazing processes. These advantages include near-base material microstructure and properties (up to 95% of base metal), simplicity and relative ease of application. In addition, the isothermal nature of the TLP bonding process eliminates the thermal stresses exerted on the joint region that are thought to be the cause of microcracking and microfissuring in welded superalloy components. A hybrid (dissimilar materials, e.g. conventional cast (CC) to directionally solidified (DS) or single crystal (SC)) bonding process is needed to enable materials upgrade. When such a capability is available, one can locally upgrade service distressed regions of a component with better materials and extend the life of the components beyond original capabilities. Quantifiable Benefits: Currently, the TLP process implementation has achieved defect free bond joints with matching base metal properties. There is an opportunity to increase the low cycle fatigue life of the components by 5 folds with the application of hybrid bonding. The process also promises 20 – 80 % repair cost reductions and up to 50% repair cycle time reduction when compared to weld repairs. Project Deliverables: Project participants will choose the hybrid material combination, e.g. conventional cast (CC) to Single Crystal (SC), for which the process will be developed. The project will then deliver the following:
Point of Contact: Gary Burkart, Emerging Project Development, NCMS/CTMA; 715 416-0792 or glburkart@charter.net
SIEMAT® Acoustic Thermography, A New NDE Tool for Rapid/Early Repair Assessment of Critical Components Statement of Problem: Siemens Westinghouse Power Corp. remanufactures combustion turbine components for the land-based power industry. Through out the disassembly, repair, and rework processes, nondestructive testing is used to focus operations on one repair feature at a time, starting with the most costly or most likely to create scrap. This serial process often entails further disassembly for successive evaluations and presses the limitations of current inspection methods. Proposed Solution: SIEMAT®, an acoustic thermography NDE technology, has demonstrated a superb combination of desired characteristics for gas turbine repair examinations. SIEMAT® uses high frequency ultrasound to thermally excite defects for easy detection with an infrared camera. The aim of this project is to enhance the current SIEMAT® capabilities to allow internal inspections of components and assemblies to facilitate more accurately the repair requirements and costs prior to disassembly. Quantifiable Benefits: The SIEMAT® system has successfully replaced traditional NDE methods (Penetrant, Eddy Current, and Visual Examinations) with better inspections in half the time. In addition, SIEMAT® has no effluent, requires no pre-cleaning, no pretest acid or heat treatment, and no post –cleaning, all direct substantial savings. The project participants will focus their efforts on three areas of improvement:
Point of Contact: Gary Burkart, Emerging Project Development, NCMS/CTMA; 715 416-0792 or glburkart@charter.net
Low-Cost 3-D Imaging Inspection System Statement of Problem: During the life cycle of industrial gas turbine, components are inspected many times. A vast majority of these inspections involve a quick visual assessment of the components condition, while other inspections are very detailed and require either a qualified nondestructive evaluation visual test (NDE-VT) or precise dimensional measurements. In today’s global economy, the analysis of inspection information, coupled with a variety of life-cycle decisions, are performed in locations remote from the inspection area. The lack of inspection information standardization further delays reaction time. While it might seem the recent addition of digital images to reports would speed decision making, we have found the wide variation in the quality and quantitative usefulness of images provided by local inspection and repair personnel contribute to the problem. Proposed Solution: We propose to automate vision-based component condition assessment by combining 3D measurement technology with high-resolution digital imaging and image processing. The outcome will be a low-cost, automated scanning system using digital cameras, projectors and image processing, to create a “data cloud” which represents the actual 3D data reconstruction of the component undergoing inspection and compare it directly with the 3D solid model documenting its design. The automated 3D imaging inspection system will be adjustable to meet resolution and precision requirements for either quick condition assessment or for a detailed NDE-VT or precision dimensional measurements. Quantifiable Benefits: An automated 3D visual inspection system will reduce the reporting time by 50% and improve the consistency of full coverage inspection of critical gas turbine component surfaces in support of repair, replacement and remaining life assessments. By adding defect recognition image processing, inspection times will be reduced by 50%. Standardization of inspection information and statistical analysis of fleet-wide conditions will further reduce overall repair process cycle times from weeks to days. Project Deliverables: The participants will choose the components which will benefit the most from automated visual inspection, identify degradation modes to be reported, and establish standardization requirements, including defect classification and quantification criteria. The project will then deliver:
Point of Contact: Gary Burkart, Emerging Project Development, NCMS/CTMA, 715 416-0792 or glburkart@charter.net
New Project Ideas (click on topics to see descriptions), if you are interested, contact the project manager listed. 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. |
|
|