Collaborative innovation could increase jet durability
Steve Koehler
News-Leader
2/22/2007
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A combination of robotics, nanotechnology and scientific know-how got some long-awaited exposure Wednesday morning.
Members of Missouri State University's Center for Applied Science and Engineering demonstrated a robotics line they developed to apply a nano-composite hard coat to the canopies of U.S. Navy jets.
The coating not only makes canopies more scratch-resistant, it also reduces the static electric charge that can build up on plastic — which reduces the chances a ground crew member will receive an electrical shock when the plane lands on an aircraft carrier.
Students and research scientists at MSU devised the robotic application process with the help of a $3 million grant from Naval aviation that was awarded to Brewer Science and Crosslink, two nanotechnology companies doing business in MSU's Jordan Valley Innovation Center.
The center is scheduled to open in April in downtown Springfield.
The new technology will help improve durability and lower the cost of the canopies on U.S. Navy aircraft, officials said.
Naval aircraft canopies cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each and some have an average life span of 100 hours or less of flight time.
The goal of the research was to extend the life of the canopies to a minimum of 1,000 hours of use.
"Crosslink made the coating and gave us the process to apply it," said Jonathan Keeth, research technician and robotics specialist for CASE. "In November, we started processing the information and came up with the robotic line in about three months."
It takes about an hour to coat the top and bottom of the canopy. The process, in its simplest form, works like this:
- A canopy is attached to a movable cart and a robotic arm delivers several coats of the polymer coating to the top of the canopy. About a quart of polymer is applied.
- The cart then moves to the baking area where hot lights deliver 200 degrees of heat to the canopy as it moves back and forth under the lights.
- The cart then moves to a station where UV lamps, similar to those in a tanning bed but much more powerful, cure the coating to the canopy.
Each system in the assembly line talks to another through computers, Keeth said.
The robot waits for the cart to tell it to go and then it moves. The robot talks to the coating system. Then the cart is told to move to the baking section and then the curing section.
Keeth said the system is versatile.
"If a company wanted to adapt it, it could do so by scaling it up. It could be adapted for other products," he said, including playground equipment and plastic toys.
Rishi Patel, a senior research scientist for CASE, said the group had to determine how fast to move different areas of the canopy under the baking lights because the middle of the canopy is closer to the lights than the two ends.
"The cart is constantly moving but at times it moves faster than at other times to keep from burning the top," he said.
Keeth said the coating can increase the lifetime of the canopy in addition to preventing static buildup.
Some commercial companies might be interested in developing the system that CASE designed, officials said.
For Ryan Giedd, executive director of JVIC, Wednesday's demonstration was the perfect example of what JVIC was intended to be —students collaborating with researchers who are working with companies operating in the center.
"It's nice for me to sit back and let these groups do the show," Giedd said.
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