Program Manager: William S. Coblenz, Ph.D.
Today's warfighting environment places a premium on fast and affordable manufacturing processes. When considering the cost of manufacturing spare parts, it is obvious that new approaches to defense manufacturing are critically needed to guarantee the future success of the military. This program will develop and demonstrate manufacturing capabilities that are affordable at small volumes and with reduced delivery times. These concepts will be extended to polymer matrix composites, advanced metallic turbine blades and ceramic body armor upgrades.
Specific objectives include—
- Developing and demonstrating non-autoclave manufacturing technology for production of polymer matrix composites aerospace components and establishing a robust process for full-size components.
- Demonstrating elimination of costly mold-making steps in manufacturing of precision airfoils through digital fabrication.
- Demonstrating low-cost synthesis of boron carbide armor for personnel and vehicles via plasma synthesized nanoscale powder and pressureless sintering.
The focus of this program is on manufacturing process development. Challenge problems for manufacture are parts/materials now bought by DoD that provide benchmarks for cost, performance, and production time.
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