JTEG Technology Forum: U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC) / U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM)

AGENDA

Long Term Tire Storage – Steve Bishel  (CCDEVCOM-GVSC)  02 Long Term Tire Storage JTEG 5 FEB 2019 —+

Model Based Logistics Engineering (MBLE) – Adam Brennan (CCDEVCOM-GVSC)  03 MBLE brief to JTEG final (Cleared)

Corrosion Detection Under Coatings – Tom Sanders (CCDEVCOM-GVSC)  04 Corrosion Detection Under Coatings JTEG Briefing

Integrated Corrosion Systems – Stephen Bails (CCDEVCOM-GVSC)  05 – JTEG Brief-Integrated Corrosion Systems 1408300 – CCDC-Ground-Vehic….

Powder Coating and Flame Spraying – Stephen Bails (CCDEVCOM-GVSC)  06 – JTEG Brief-Powder Coating and Flame Spraying-140850 – CCDC-Ground-Ve…

Light Weighting Design Study – Andrew Smail (CCDEVCOM-GVSC)  07 – FY17 Lightweight Study JTEG_B

R-FAB and RAPTOR – Timothy Phillis (CCDEVCOM)

ARL-VTD Efforts in Predictive Maintenance and Sustainment – Mulugeta Haile

 

Minutes

Event:  On 5 February 2019, the Joint Technology Exchange Group (JTEG), in coordination with the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS), hosted a virtual forum on “U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDEVCOM) – Ground Vehicle Systems Center Maintenance Technology”.  The forum was rescheduled from the original 26 January date due to an arctic blast effecting the mid-west region and forcing installations to close on 26 January.

Note: Effective 3 February, the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) transitioned from the Army Materiel Command (AMC) to the Army Futures Command (AFC) and RDECOM was renamed the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDEVCOM). The CCDEVCOM-Ground Vehicle Systems was formally known as the United States Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC).

Purpose:  This was the fourth JTEG forum dedicated to a specific military service or agency. The U.S. Army CCDEVCOM and subordinate commands provided an overview of some of their maintenance and sustainment technologies. They presented several maintenance related technologies are being demonstrated or implemented to improve U.S. Army equipment effectiveness and/or efficiency, and also discussed maintenance related technology areas that they will be pursuing in the future.

Welcome: Greg Kilchenstein – OSD(MR) welcomed everyone to the forum, thanked the presenters and all the listeners for their attendance, discussed the importance of the JTEG forums and the CCDEVCOM, and briefly previewed the agenda.

Administrative:  This was an open forum. The presentations, along with questions and answers, were conducted through Adobe Connect. A separate audio line was used. Approximately 40 participants from across DOD and industry joined in the forum.

Long Term Tire Storage – Steve Bishel  (CCDEVCOM-GVSC) discussed a two year (Feb 2017-Sep 2019) storage test of a waterborne, protective coating for spray application to the interior and exterior sidewall tire surfaces developed by PPG Industries. The coating is a barrier to oxygen and ozone and blocks the transmission of UV light to the tire rubber. Evaluation to date shows improvement in oxidative aging and ozone resistance of coated tire versus a non-coated tire.

Model Based Logistics Engineering (MBLE) – Adam Brennan (CCDEVCOM-GVSC) talked about the five goals of Digital Engineering Strategy: Development, Integration and use of models; authoritative source of truth; technology innovation; infrastructure and environments; and culture and workforce. He discussed the advantages of MBLE and reviewed the “Maintenance Aware Design (MADe)” tool.

Corrosion Detection Under Coatings – Tom Sanders (CCDEVCOM-GVSC) discussed an FY17 CTMA project with the following objectives: evaluate existing NDE techniques and computational tools for corrosion detection and assessment with respect to their effectiveness, limitations, strengths and applicability with an aim to identifying the optimal methodology;  design of experiments to take into account the types of substrates, coatings, resulting components and level/degree of corrosion growth; narrow down constraints such as accessibility, sample/component geometry, sensor sizes, resolution expected, and measuring environment; develop computational models for conducting parametric studies that will aid in the sensor development and signal interpretation; and develop signal processing algorithms for diagnosis and prognosis.

Integrated Corrosion Systems – Stephen Bails (CCDEVCOM-GVSC) talked about developing new combinations of pre-treatment, primer and CARC topcoat with significant improvements in corrosion, chip, and abrasion resistance, using existing or recently developed coating technology. He described a project schedule form FY17-FY19 consisting of four tasks: Joint Test Protocol (JTP) Development; Test Panel Preparation; Performance Testing; and Demonstration.

Powder Coating and Flame Spraying – Stephen Bails (CCDEVCOM-GVSC) discussed increase powder coating use throughout the military, and especially in the depot setting, by

developing powder coatings which can be applied using thermal spray, enabling application without the traditional curing oven. The current project began in FY16 and is scheduled through FY19.

Light Weighting Design Study – Andrew Smail (CCDEVCOM-GVSC) described this study as an effort to develop light weight alternative material/design solutions for specific sub-systems. The short term demonstration proposed for the M-1 Abrams blow off panels, while the designs are intended to be included in the next-generation combat vehicle demonstrator.

R-FAB and RAPTOR – Timothy Phillis (CCDEVCOM) briefed the Rapid Fabrication via Additive Manufacturing on the Battlefield (R-FAB) and the digital Repository of Additive Parts for Tactical & Operational Readiness (RAPTOR) projects. The Army is obtaining valuable lessons learned by employing a “State of the Art” expeditionary AM system operated by soldiers in a field environment in Korea. RAPTOR uses an intuitive graphic user interface (GUI) that provides soldiers access to digital data files used in additive or subtractive expeditionary manufacturing processes to produce battle damage assessment repair (BDAR) or emergency/temporary repair parts.

ARL-VTD Efforts in Predictive Maintenance and Sustainment – Mulugeta Haile (CCDEVCOM-ARL) described an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled predictive maintenance

program that ARL is in collaboration with NVIDIA, and a risk-based maintenance paradigm

using Aircraft Maintenance Event Tree Analysis (AMETA). Recent success includes full-scale airframe health monitoring and predictive maintenance of the UH-60 oil cooler. The goal is to develop very long maintenance free operating periods, ultimately resulting in the development of a vehicle that operates without any service beyond replenishment.

 

Q&A – A Q&A occurred after each briefer finished their presentation. Questions and answers will be posted on the JTEG website with these minutes.

Closing Comments: Greg Kilchenstein thanked the presenters for their contributions and all the work being done at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command. He suggested continuing the information exchange beyond the forum and the importance of collaboration within the DoD maintenance community.

 

Action Items: 

  • Once the briefings are cleared for “public release”, they will be posted on the JTEG website at https://jteg.ncms.org/ .

 

Next JTEG Meeting: The next scheduled JTEG virtual forum is 26 February, 1:00 – 3:00 pm EST. The topic is “The Digital Thread”.

 

POC this action is Ray Langlais, rlanglais@lmi.org , (571) 633-8019

 

Forum Q&A

Long-Term Tire Storage – Steve Bishel

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Q1. Can it be used on other systems besides tires?

A1. Yes, it has applicability to other components composed of rubber.

 

Q2. What does it mean in terms of other ground systems availability improvement?

A2. It can be used for any wheeled vehicle system with rubber components.

 

Model Based Logistics Engineering (MBLE) – Adam Brennan

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Q1. How do you validate the model based FMECA?  any empirical testing?

A1. No. With any model it’s a continually improving process. We conduct periodic reviews. The information comes from the PM and there is a data feedback loop.

 

Q2. Is affordability an impediment to digitizing legacy hardware?  What is in work to streamline the process?

A2. The cost from the support side is not high. We provide knowledge of why they are performing poorly or experiencing high failure rates.

 

 

Corrosion Detection Under Coatings – Tom Sanders

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Q1. How sensitive is the effectiveness of the NDI technique to the material substrate?

A1. We haven’t produced results on different substrates yet.

 

Integrated Corrosion Systems – Stephen Bails

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Q1. Are corrosion models available to supplement/enhance your empirical based corrosion experimentation and testing?

A1. The models that North Dakota State University have perfected may do a lot of it, but I do not know if that is included. They have the tools to do it and I believe it is their intent.

 

 

Powder Coating and Flame Spraying – Stephen Bails

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Q1. Does thermal spray have any advantages over cold spray?  Why use thermal spray over cold spray?

A1. I’m not sure. I think it has something to do with the curing process. We are using thermal spray for CARC paint.

 

 

Light Weighting Design Study – Andrew Smail

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Q1. None

 

R-FAB and RAPTOR – Timothy Phillis

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Q1. None

 

ARL’s efforts on aviation maintenance and sustainment – Mulugeta Haile

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Q1. Can your AI algorithms be shared with your DoD counterparts in other Services?

A1. Yes, most welcome.

 

Q2. Are you working with OSD’s Joint AI Center?

A2. Certainly we plan to. Most of our work has joint applicability.

 

Q3. What is the ROM cost to develop the algorithm for the oil cooler failure signature?

A3. Minimal.

 

Q4. What is the timeframe needed to develop the failure algorithms to a point where we are confident enough to take proactive maintenance action?

A4. I would say 3-5 years. We are developing a GUI and are almost on the verge of obtaining the level of confidence needed.