SBIR-STTR Award

The Navy has aircraft tie-downs in their helicopter flight decks aboard Destroyers that should last the expected 40 years life of their ships but are failing prematurely due to severe corrosion and wear; so to meet this need this research and development project will identify new novel metallic superalloys along with a unique innovative design change altering the location of the weld and heat affected zone with the new design having a hardness up to Rockwell C40 and which will meet or exceed requirements and be easily integrated into the current deck design with no changes required to the functional geometry. A turnkey drop-in solution will be identified, designed and laid out utilizing CAE (computer aided engineering) such as CATIA V6 and proof given of its feasibility and performance capability via such advanced stress analysis tools as finite element modeling (FEM) analysis as well as lab accelerated corrosion tests confirming its corrosion resistance. This approach it is felt would result in the optimal solution to satisfy the Navy's need as it will very easily be integrated by following the current maintenance procedure, with little change, for replacing a corroded tie-down with a new one by welding it in place, The only changes are the new tie-down will be one made of a new novel metal superalloy that is impervious to corrosion and which meets all strength requirements and the weld location and heat affected zones will be moved to a noncritical location so the crossbars will be unaffected in strength retaining their full 185 KSI ultimate tensile and 150 KSI yield strengths and yet the functional geometry of the tie downs will remain unchanged. Due to the superalloy being much greater in strength than the old AISI 4130 tie-downs no change in the size, geometry or shape would be necessary of the functional portion of the geometry. This means there is the added advantage that all interfacing tie-down fittings ( hook and chain assembly that attach tie downs to aircraft) can retain their exact size, geometry and shape too - no learning curve would be needed for flight crew personnel because the replacement design would for all intents and purposes seem identical to the users. It is felt such a solution is closest to an optimal one possible. The result will be durable tie downs never needing replacement that have a higher load capacity to the ones they replace. During phase 1 research and development a couple variations of this approach will be considered and finalized with proof of concept being provided by lab tests and CAE and FEM (finite element modeling) engineering work in preparation for building a prototype during phase 2 work and delivering to the Navy for their verification tests. Later in phase 3 we will assist the Navy in integrating these new tie-downs and a product will be commercialized and made available to the general public.

Benefit:
Aside from the obvious anticipated benefits the Navy will derive from having an optimal turnkey drop-in solution that completely eliminates the maintenance problem they are having with the current AISI 4130 tie-downs that must constantly be replaced due to severe corrosion and wear there are other benefits to the Navy and the civilian community at large as well as several commercial applications we foresee coming from this research. Other benefits to the Navy are that the new corrosive resistant tie-down design will be more reliable assuring that no tie-down will fail during service keeping safe from harm valuable personnel and expensive aircraft as well as keeping the deck leak free and avoiding corrosion and harm to hardware mounted under the flight deck - overall this will be a huge cost savings to the Navy. The Navy may also benefit by utilizing a version of this innovative technology in other flight decks on other vessels like aircraft carrier flight decks. Likewise, similar tie-downs exist for worldwide in a host of applications such as on oil rigs in the ocean, or on cruise lines and freighters as well as on corporate flight decks on top of buildings.

Keywords:
Novel Noncorroding Metallic Alloy., Novel Noncorroding Metallic Alloy., Advanced Thermoplastic Composite, noncorrosive material, Flight Deck Tie Downs, Metallic glass, Corrosion Resistance

The US Navy DDG-51 Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer fleet currently utilizes AISI 4130 steel tie downs which metal is highly reactive to seawater which without protective coatings would rapidly corrode severely and need immediate replacement as well as unexpectedly fail causing possible loss of life and loss of high value equipment as well as having very poor resistance to high heat and cold. Consequently, Burchell Professional Group Inc. proposed a new innovative Inconel 718 tie down turnkey drop in and play solution that would cost effectively easily be integrated into the fleet and represents a significant upgrade in capabilities for the fleet while lowering overall costs related to these tie downs by 95 percent and never need replacement or any maintenance during the 40 plus years of service life.

Benefit:
These new Inconel 718 tie down technology combines the superior properties of this superior material (superior corrosive resistance, outstanding weldability, extreme resistance to fuels and industrial chemicals, superior strength, superior stiffness, superior fatigue resistance, superior toughness, superior hardness and wear resistance, superior heat/cold resistance, galvanically compatible with all steels) along with a more robust highly innovative drop in and play turnkey design that eliminates all maintenance and reduces the per unit costs by 95 % over the 40 year life compared to current AISI 4130 tie downs. Purchase price of Inconel 718 tie downs per unit is lower than AISI 4130 tie downs - assuming the same quantity ordered There are many potential commercial applications in both the defense industry as well as in civilian life due to the absence currently of any high strength, abrasive resistant, corrosive resistant, outstanding weldability tie down that can last more than 40 years in harsh seawater environments. The USA Navy has 85 destroyers in active service with 2 more being built and 2 more planned to be built by 2030 with many tie downs installed on each of these flight decks a large market. The US Navy alone may need potentially hundreds or thousands of these tie-downs per year for new Destroyers and to upgrade the fleet with them. These new superalloy tie-downs are a large market for both installing on active ships and for use on new ships to be built for years to come. The military can use these tie downs for many other applications too such as on any ship or wherever a tie down fitting is needed which could include aircraft carriers or any ship with a flight deck. The civilian market is likewise large and diverse with possible applications on offshore oil rigs which have helicopter landing pads of which there are about 192 worldwide as of 2020 data. Other applications are on luxury yachts for the rich, and any place a tie down could be used such as helicopter pads for hospitals, and on large high-rise buildings as well as corporate headquarters or even at spacecraft launch and landing sites. As we can see the market is large and diverse in both the civilian and military for these new tie downs with superior properties

Keywords:
Superalloy, Destroyer, flight deck, tie down