Thermal Spray Dashboard/Knowledge Management System

The USAF repair depots expend tremendous amounts of resources applying high technology thermal spray coatings to improve the performance of components and systems. In general, thermal spray application processes are complex, requires high cost equipment that are expensive to operate, need highly trained personnel and necessitate constant verification testing to ascertain the coatings meet requirements. The engineering and maintenance personnel must utilize multiple systems, databases and data inputs to keep the equipment operating at levels required to maintain the highest quality coating standards. The Thermal Spray Dashboard system integrates the various independent thermal spray process data in such a way that it can be interpreted, analyzed and utilized to assist process engineering and production personnel in their task of ensuring an efficient, consistent process is maintained that delivers high quality coating products. The ultimate benefit will be improved performance and reduced overall operational costs. The reduced operational cost will occur as a result of: higher throughput, reduced rework, reduced flow days (result of reduced rework and reduced lab delays), reduced metallurgical laboratory testing, reduced consumable material cost, greater reliability & reduced maintenance of equipment and reduced engineering support.