SCRA Announces Exciting Project with the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development, and Engineering Center
February 21, 2009CHARLESTON, SC – February 20, 2008 –The U.S. Army will soon have the ability to deploy specially-configured shipping containers that are fully equipped with metal analysis and metalcasting equipment directly into Iraq, Afghanistan, or anywhere else around the globe. This valuable resource will enable the production of parts that our U.S. warfighters need to return their vehicles and weapon systems back to fully operational status.
SCRA, a global leader in applied research and commercialization services, announces a $2 million prime contract to execute the Tactical Metal Fabrication (TacFab) program under the direction of the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development, and Engineering Center (TARDEC), located in Warren, Michigan. The contract administrator is the U.S. Army Tank Automotive & Armaments Command (TACOM), also located in Warren. SCRA brings conceptualization, program development, management and engineering expertise to the program.
TacFab provides a capability that is urgently needed by the U.S. Army: the ability to produce castings on demand within the theater of operations. The system complements the Army’s deployable Mobile Parts Hospitals (MPH), a field “hospital” housed in highly customized containers that is staffed with industrial specialists. These experts are responsible for manufacturing machined parts for the warfighter. MPH has been very successful in reducing delivery times for machined parts, but it cannot satisfy the need for providing cast parts. Once approved by the Army for co-deployment, TacFab and MPH will provide a powerful new capability to produce a much broader spectrum of parts, on demand, to support the warfighter.
State-of-the-art capabilities being provided with TacFab include:
- Conversion of low-cost laser scans into a three-dimensional CAD file that is used with rapid casting technologies;
- A new rapid-cast technology that produces metal more efficiently;
- Mobile deployment of Optical Emission Spectroscopy (OES), a method that uses light to analyze a legacy machine part and determine the content required for a replacement casting.
Once fully configured, a five to tenfold reduction in delivery times is expected for poured metal part base shapes versus conventional procurement methods. Additional benefits include a significant reduction in waste and scrap metal, reduced energy consumption, and greater part integrity.
In addition to deployment capability wherever the theater of operation might be, the Army is also considering TacFab deployment to additional U.S. depots as a resource for supporting RESET activities. RESET programs refurbish weapon systems returning from Southwest Asia. Anniston Army Depot (Anniston, Alabama) and Letterkenny Army Depot (Chambersburg, Pennsylvania) are early candidates to receive a TacFab system.
SCRA’s partners responsible for conducting product data engineering for the TacFab program are Northrop Grumman Information Technology and Defense Support Services LLC (DS2), a Lockheed Martin and Day & Zimmermann company. Both companies are located in South Carolina. Another key partner on the program, buyCASTINGS.com of Dayton, Ohio, is bringing extensive metalcasting knowledge and expertise.
“TacFab illustrates the capabilities of SCRA and our partners to deliver assured outcomes to the U.S. Army and to our warfighters,” said Bill Mahoney, SCRA CEO. “We are proud to see our ideas put into action. Casting capability provided from a portable platform delivered straight to the theater of operations is an innovative solution that enables significant cost savings and efficiencies for our Armed Forces.”
About SCRA
SCRA is a global leader in applied research and commercialization services with offices in South Carolina, Ohio and in McLean, Virginia. SCRA collaborates to advance technology, providing technology-based solutions with assured outcomes to industry and government, with the help of research universities in SC, the US and around the world.
For more information, contact:
Jill Hirsekorn
SCRA
843.760.3329
[email protected]