The CTMA Connector

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 message body.

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TWO NETWORKING SESSION ARE UPCOMING. PLAN TO PARTICIPATE.

U.S. Marine Corps Land Systems Technology Sustainment Workshop

February 26 - 27, 2008

Marine Corps Base Quantico

https://www.ncms.org/SSL/08CTMA-Quantico/08-registration.htm

WORKSHOP LOCATION:

The workshop will be held at The Clubs at Quantico, Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia.

WORKSHOP FOCUS & PURPOSE

Improve Marine Corps materiel sustainment processes by identifying common maintenance issues and exploring potential technology solutions in use/development in other military services and in commercial industry. The workshop will focus primarily on the needs of USMC Land Systems and maintenance facilities including Marine Corps Maintenance Center (Albany, Georgia) and Marine Corps Maintenance Center (Barstow, California).

WORKSHOP GOAL:

Provide the USMC Land System sustainers with a broad perspective of the R & D programs that are available to address their sustainment needs. In addition, develop appropriate Commercial Technologies for Maintenance Activities (CTMA) projects with Marine Corps activities, industry partners, and NCMS that will provide the development and/or implementation of new technology solutions with measurable results (METRICS).

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:

Industry - Defense OEM, commercial industry, and technology providers

DoD Community - Maintenance/Logistics/Technologists

BENEFITS:

Industry - Learn about Marine Corps depot and maintenance issues and discover new applications for your technology.

Marine Corps Maintenance Facilities - Communicate issues/needs to industry for identification of potential solutions, network with manufacturing industry experts, information exchange opportunities with other Services, depots/facilities.

DoD Maintenance Facilities - Identify common issues among Marine Corps Maintenance Centers crucial for budget forecasts, network with other DoD maintenance personnel and private industry.

2008 Annual CTMA Working Symposium

April 7 - 9

Marriott - Camden Yard

Baltimore, Maryland

https://www.ncms.org/SSL/Symposium2008/registration08.htm

The premier networking and knowledge sharing event focused upon improving the readiness of DoD weapon systems through new technologies. Learn about new technologies being developed for the maintenance and repair communities. In addition to the plenary sessions, the symposium is organized along three tracks: Readiness/Reliability, Data Management, and Operations. Plan to participate and bring your new ideas for discussions.

FUNDING AVAILABLE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATION AND VALIDATION

The Department of Defense (DoD), through the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP), supports the demonstration and validation of environmental technologies that address priority DoD environmental requirements. The goal of ESTCP is to transition mature environmental science and technology projects through the demonstration and validation phase, thereby enabling promising technologies to receive regulatory and DoD end-user acceptance and to be fielded and commercialized more effectively and more rapidly.

ESTCP is seeking innovative environmental technology demonstrations as candidates for funding beginning in Fiscal Year (FY) 2009. This solicitation requests pre-proposals via Calls for Proposals to DoD organizations and Federal (Non-DoD) organizations, and via a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Private Sector organizations. PRE-PROPOSALS ARE DUE BY THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2008.

Detailed instructions for DoD, Non-DoD Federal, and BAA proposers (i.e., ESTCP’s objectives, proposal submission requirements, a summary of the proposal evaluation process, and the relevant topic areas) are available on the ESTCP website: http://www.estcp.org/opportunities.

DoD organizations (Service and Defense Agencies) may submit pre-proposals for demonstrations of innovative environmental technologies in the following topic areas:

Environmental Restoration — innovative technologies for the detection, characterization, assessment, containment, and remediation of a wide range of contaminants in soil, sediments, and ground and surface water.
Munitions Management — advanced geophysical sensor and signal processing technologies for the detection, discrimination, and remediation of unexploded ordnance (UXO) and technologies for range clearance and reduced generation of UXO.
Sustainable Infrastructure — natural resources (e.g., ecosystem-based management; threatened, endangered, and at-risk species; land management and watershed protection; and maritime sustainability), facilities (e.g., installation/regional sustainability, energy, noise, air and water quality, and facility waste), and cultural resources.
Weapons Systems and Platforms — advanced alternative environmentally benign technologies and materials that reduce, control, or eliminate the waste and emissions associated with the manufacturing, maintenance, and use of DoD weapons systems and platforms

The Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) is seeking proposals from Non-DoD Federal organizations and the Private Sector for environmental technologies in the following topic areas only:

Remediation of Contaminated Groundwater

In Situ Remediation of Contaminated Sediments

Characterization, Control, and Treatment of Range Contamination

Military Munitions Detection, Discrimination, and Remediation

Control of Non-Native Invasive Species on DoD Lands and Waters

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy for DoD Installations

New Project Approval: Modernization of Nickel Electroplating

DoD Participants: Corpus Christi Army Depot, Navy Fleet Readiness Center Southwest

This project builds off the successes of previous projects at Corpus Christi AD (CCAD) and Fleet Readiness Center Southwest on the development and deployment of no-mask tooling for chromium plating. This project extends the technology to nickel electroplating, which is done extensively throughout DoD. The following expected project results/benefits are projected for CCAD and FRC SW:

Eliminate a minimum of 50% of the processing steps required to plate/machine the selected parts
Reduced turnaround time by a minimum of 50%
Increased predictability/reproducibility of nickel plating process
Reduction of current reject/rework rate to a level of 5% or less
Reduced overall nickel plating and machining costs by 50%.
- Reduced plating labor
- Reduced maintenance labor
- Reduction of nickel material usage
- Energy savings through less rework and reduced rectifier energy use

Reductions in waste generation will occur for the following wastes:

IWTP sludge (F006): Less rework (reduction to 5% or less) proportionally reduces quantity of nickel discharged to the industrial waste treatment plant (IWTP) where hazardous sludge (F006) is generated by a precipitation/dewatering process.

Spent nickel bath: Less rework will reduce the frequency of nickel plating bath disposal due to impurity build-up.

Nickel strip: Less rework (reduction to 5% or less) proportionally reduces quantity of spent nickel strip solution sent offsite for disposal.

Spent wax (non-hazardous). The portion of this waste associated with the selected parts will be completely eliminated.

Nickel emissions Less rework and reduced plating times will proportionally decreases the quantity of nickel emissions to the workplace and the atmosphere.

The NCMS contact is Paul Chalmer, paulc@ncms.org, 734-995-4911.

Participants needed on New Project Ideas: Submit and view project ideas at http://ctmaideas.ncms.org. Add your comments to new project ideas and indicate your interest in helping to define and participate in the project.

We now have over 70 new project ideas submitted for the CTMA program. These projects are all being reviewed with the individual services in order to seek funding to augment the 2008 CTMA funding directed by Congress. Keep the ideas coming, because they also serve to illustrate the tremendous need for new technologies to increase weapon systems readiness.

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.