NCMS is pleased to announce the three finalists for the 2024 CTMA Technology Competition, which highlights innovations in maintenance and sustainment technologies. One-hundred high-quality entries were received. Each submission was carefully reviewed by the principals of the Joint Technology Exchange Group (JTEG), a collaborative group formed by the DOD to improve coordination in the introduction of new or improved technology, new processes, or new equipment into DOD depot maintenance activities. The judges selected the finalists for maintenance impact, originality, technical maturity, cross-service applicability, and feasibility in transitioning the technology to the DOD.
The finalists are:
- Boston Engineering Corporation: Family of Sustainment Assisting Robotics (FOSAR)
The FOSAR program will develop and demonstrate multiple technologies under one common and synergistic architecture to enable the Navy and other stakeholders to access a common user interface and common tools that will dramatically reduce maintenance and sustainment costs. The capabilities, provided by multiple companies, will include robotic systems, payloads and sensors, digital solution tools that include AR/VR/MR/XR, Logistics Internet of Things, and Exoskeleton technology for use by maintenance and sustainment personnel. The interchangeable payloads will increase worker efficiency and weapon systems’ availability.
- US Air Force, Rapid Sustainment Office: Robotic Incremental Sheet Forming
Legacy manufacturing methods, such as hydroforming, do not support the speed and agility needed for the DOD. An alternative to hydroforming, Robotic Incremental Sheet Forming (RISF), has a short payback period, speed, flexibility, and high estimated life cycle savings over hydroforming. Double-sided Robotic Incremental Sheet forming is a process where two robots with end-of-arm stylus tools use a predefined CNC tool path to shape the sheet metal into a replacement part. A CBA analysis generated by University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI) estimates that double-sided incremental sheet forming has an estimated life cycle savings over hydroforming of $108,367,699, a cost/benefit ratio of 8.52/1, and a payback period of only 1 year.
- US Air Force: Surface Cleanliness Analyzer
The DOD faces huge challenges related to lost system availability and the cost of repairing adhesion-related failures. Surface cleanliness is a difficult to measure, critical factor to ensure proper adhesion of paints, coatings, and sealants. This self-contained, portable, handheld instrument provides a simple method for sampling surface cleanliness, especially in hard-to-reach areas that are difficult to clean. By using a single, precisely dispensed microdroplet of water, the instrument determines contamination by measuring surface wettability, providing quantitative surface cleanliness data in 2 seconds. The use of this instrument will eliminate field and depot scrap, rework, and production delays related to poor adhesion and improper surface cleaning.
The top three finalists will present their entries at the CTMA Technology Competition Finalists’ Presentation at the 2024 CTMA Partners Meeting on May 8, 2024, in Providence, RI.
After the presentations, judges will select the Overall Award winner, and event attendees will select the People’s Choice Award winner. Both winners will be announced at the conclusion of the event, at which time NCMS will make available $100,000 to the Overall Award winner and $25,000 to the People’s Choice Award winner. Both awards will be applicable to a future CTMA project as support funding. The funds will be applied to a selected DOD demonstration initiative, to the extent permitted under the existing CTMA cooperative agreement.
