SBIR-STTR Award

The Air Force spends $12 billion annually on organic and commercial depot-level maintenance, $1 billion of which is aircraft defastening. The current process for defastening is labor-intensive and error prone. Defect rates can reach as high as 20% using a standard twist drill. “Hard Metal Fasteners”, containing titanium, steel, and other strong alloys cause a disproportionate amount of defects due to the inherent difficulty drilling through the material by hand. Due to the high likelihood of damage to the aircraft and high cost of labor, the cost of defastenting these Hard Metal Fasteners is an achilles heel for USAF aircraft maintaine