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Push for Paperless Paint, Pruned Prep

Friday, October 5, 2012

More items for Program/Project Management

Less grinding, new coating protocols, and something called “paperless paint” top the crop of research projects that will share $1.8 million in new funding from the National Shipbuilding Research Program.

The NSRP Executive Control Board recently announced funding for the 12 projects as part of the program’s mission to reduce the costs associated with Navy shipbuilding and repair. The projects will be executed through NSRP’s panels, which include Surface Preparation & Coatings.

NSRP

With potential cost savings of $7 million a year, the Navy is actively pursuing research on retaining pre-construction primers.

The current round of grantees includes both new and ongoing projects.

Compatibility and Pre-Construction Primer

“Compatibility of ‘Single-Coat’ Tank Coating with Retained Preconstruction Primer,” newly granted $149,000, is an ongoing project led by Elzly Technologies. The goal is to obtain Naval Sea Systems Command approval to apply rapid-cure, single-coat tank linings directly over pre-construction primer.

In January 2011, the Navy announced that it would loosen its longstanding requirement that preconstruction primers be removed from all critical-coated surfaces. That decision followed an NSRP-sponsored research project that found that leaving the primer in place could save more than $7 million annually.

That report also noted concerns about the performance of the newer single-coat rapid-cure coatings when applied over pre-construction primer and recommended further study of that issue.

The Elzly-led project received $100,000 from NSRP last October.

The new round of research expands upon the previous one, with continued testing and analysis of the coatings’ performance.

Other members of the project team are NASSCO, BAE SE Shipyards, and Ingalls Shipbuilding.

Reducing the Grind

“Identifying Opportunities to Reduce Grinding Labor,” also awarded $149,000, is a project by Newport News Shipbuilding to determine if labor can be reduced by using more efficient grinding methods and/or by reducing the total amount of grinding that must be done on a project.

http://nsrp.org/3-Project_Portfolio.html

Twelve projects will receive a total of $1.8 million.

That research is being overseen by NSRP’s Panel on Planning, Production Processes & Facilities.

Paperless Paint

“Robust Functional Paperless Paint,” awarded $147,000, is a project aimed at reducing the paperwork involved in the ship cleaning and painting requirements of the Navy’s Standard Item 009-32.

The project involves BAE Systems SE Shipyards; Marinette Marine; and TruQC, a Missouri-based start-up that develops job-site documentation software.

The project aims to see whether a “commercially available, off-the-shelf software system for quality assurance paint inspection” can be tailored to comply with Standard Item 009-32, “potentially replacing the previous paperless systems with a robust new system application.”

Other Projects

The nine other projects and their funding:

• Highly Portable Video System for Limited Access Shipbuilding Welds ($150,000);

• Lightweight Fillet Weld Tack-Gun for Precision Structure Fabrication ($150,000);

• DFP Rules Delivery / Technical Memory Management System for Shipyards ($150,000);

• Customization of Femap FEA Preprocessor for Shipbuilder Needs ($150,000);

• Removal of Metals from Shipyard Storm Water Runoff ($145,000);

• Managing Simulation and Analysis Data and Activities ($150,000);

• Production Information Standards for Incorporating Lifting Lugs and Backup Structure ($149,000);

• Materials and Components for Exterior Electrical Connections and Sealing ($150,000); and

• Standardized Welding Curriculum and Testing for Shipyards ($150,000)

Additional information on NSRP projects both underway and completed is available here.