US Air Force
Canvas Category OEM : Defense
The mission of the United States Air Force is to fly, fight and win – airpower anytime, anywhere. Whether full time, part time, volunteer, in or out of uniform, everyone who serves plays a critical role in helping us achieve mission success.
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The Air Force is quietly revolutionizing parts replacement
The U.S. military spends billions on replacement parts for aircraft each year, with the Air Force requesting $1.5 billion for parts in the next fiscal year alone. Now, officials at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia, working with a startup called Machina Labs, say they’ve found a robotic AI-driven solution to those high costs. And the new technique could also significantly shorten the supply chain, allowing replacement to happen closer to the front lines.
In terms of the military’s future needs, the system’s most important asset may be its small size, with the current version able to fit on the back of a truck. A smaller infrastructure footprint could mean not only cost savings, but also allow troops to move repair work—or drone making—much closer to the battlefield. That’s something the Ukrainians have done with great success, and it allows for much more nimble operations as well as decreasing the vulnerability of supply lines. It could be particularly useful in the Pacific, where parts resupply is fraught with logistical and political challenges.
Atomic-6 Announces Over $9 Million in Total Capital
Atomic-6, a leading innovator in advanced composite manufacturing for Aerospace, Ballistic, and Hypersonic applications, is pleased to announce the successful completion of its first two funding rounds. With an infusion of dilutive funding ($4.95M) and non-dilutive Small Business Innovation Research contracts ($4.24M) awarded by the United States Air Force and Space Force, the company has secured a total of $9.2M to further its innovative pursuits. The funding will bolster the company’s ability to build upon these advancements and further its commitment to delivering superior aerospace and defense solutions.
AFRL successfully field-tests AI robot to improve DAF manufacturing capability
Researchers from the Air Force Research Laboratory, or AFRL, have combined efforts with The Ohio State University, or OSU, and industry partners CapSen Robotics and Yaskawa Motoman to successfully demonstrate an autonomous robotic incremental metal forming prototype at the Warner-Robins Air Logistics Complex, or WR-ALC, a tenant of Robins Air Force Base in Georgia, in late January 2023. The artificially intelligent system, nicknamed AI-FORGE, was funded primarily by the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing, or ARM, Institute, and promises to not only improve aircraft readiness for the U.S. Department of the Air Force but also to significantly impact the future of metamorphic manufacturing, also called robotic blacksmithing.
“There is an immediate need to obtain customized forged components that we might only require a few of, but which have significant lead times,” said Dr. Sean Donegan, digital manufacturing research team lead, AFRL’s Materials and Manufacturing Directorate. “In the near future, this system will allow us to acquire the specific auxiliary components and tools that are required to successfully support DAF missions. But in the far term, we want to be able to make almost anything.
AI-FORGE uses incremental forming, a heat-assisted metalworking process that permits users to manufacture small lots of customized manufactured parts for military aircraft. The addition of artificially intelligent software allows the robotic system to make significant forming decisions on its own without the need for a human operator, offering near-term cost- and time-saving benefits as well as an improved ability to replace hard-to-find aircraft structural parts. ”
Optomec to develop additive repair process for USAF aircraft engine parts
The US Air Force (USAF) has awarded a contract to Optomec to develop an additive repair process for the aircraft engines’ oversized titanium components. The components are used on USAF aircraft, including the F22 Raptor and F35 Lightning II. Under the $1.5m contract, Optomec will develop metal additive manufacturing system, which will help repair the parts.
The integrally bladed rotors (IBR), also known as the blisks, are single-piece compressor rotors that often gets damaged or worn out in the normal use. Cost of replacing each of the lightweight, titanium-alloy blisks can amount to more than $500,000, noted the company. With Optomec’s additive repair process, the USAF is expected to save more than 80% of the total repair cost, including tens of millions of dollars in annual investment.