Material and Process Specification Optimization

ABSTRACT: As financial constraints become more pronounced for the DOD, and industry in general, the need for efficiency and elimination of waste becomes ever more important. Factories and repair depots expend tremendous amounts of resources applying high technology coatings to improve the performance of components and systems. The materials and application processes used for these coatings have been developed around"generic"specifications to enable applicability to many, if not all, industries at the lowest possible cost. The DOD and OEM coating requirements are quite stringent and the generic industry specifications do not adequately define materials that ensure high coating application success and consequently result in unnecessary cost and wasted resources. ES3 proposes to address the coating application unnecessary cost and wasted resources by creating a new set of material and process specifications that will be developed around the Air Force repair depot specific coating requirements and specific application equipment. The new set of material specifications will be designed to minimize procurement costs but yet maximize control of the feed stock materials manufacturing parameters. This Phase I effort will prepare for Phase II activities that will focus on design, qualification and implementation planning efforts. BENEFIT: ES3 anticipates the results of Phase I work will validate the feasibility and need for immediate pursuit of Phase II efforts. The immediate benefit will be reduced repair depot operational costs as a result of: A) higher throughput, B) reduced rework, C)reduced flow days, D) reduced metallurgical laboratory testing, E) reduced consumable material cost, F) reduced maintenance of equipment, and, G) reduced engineering support. If the government approves the release of the new material specifications, OEM"s and commercial applicators will have the option of using them. The intent is to have the new set of material specifications be a subset of the existing material specifications to minimize the need for T.O. documentation changes or requalification.