SWRMC recently worked with military and industry partners, NAVSEA, Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center (MARMC), Fleet Logistics Support (VRC), and Penn State University, to conduct Cold Spray repairs on two rudder stock bearing journals from USS ESSEX (LHD 2). Cold Spray is a process where metal is deposited on surfaces through a high velocity nozzle to restore components back to dimensional tolerances where wear or corrosion have occurred.
This is the largest and longest Cold Spray repair that the Navy has ever performed and took 23 hours of spraying, close to 220 pounds of specialized powder, and a semi-truck trailer of nitrogen (80,000 cuft) to complete the job. This emerging technology was a significant win for SWRMC by reducing technical risk as well as undocking delays by at least 24 days from the proposed traditional repair methods. This is a prime example of how public/private partnerships and outside the box thinking can support the On-Time-Delivery of ships.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7054171733523664896