DARPA looking for new composite material & process for manufacturing small parts
NewsSeptember 25, 2015
ARLINGTON, Virginia. Officials at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) want to make the manufacturing of small parts for military systems simpler, faster, and less costly so they have launched the Tailorable Feedstock and Forming (TFF) program, which looks at reducing the time and cost burdens associated with current manufacturing design and development cycles for defense platforms. TFF aims to cut the turnaround time for part modifications and redesigns by as much as 50 percent.
To date manufacturing process for defense systems often demands unique materials and processes, complex certification requirements and specifications, and specialized tools and equipment, according to a DARPA release on TFF. This usually results in lengthy production timelines and high costs so DARPA officials came up with TFF hoping to solve these challenges with the development of a tailorable composite feedstock material and a single tailorable forming method.
Composite materials are extremely strong and lightweight, but automated systems for producing composite parts are currently cost-effective only for parts weighing 20 pounds or more, according to DARPA. Parts that weigh less than 20 pounds are typically manufactured using metals, such as aluminum, which are less expensive than composites but are more dense, adding weight to the system.
“Eighty percent of small parts are made of metal due to the prohibitive fabrication cost of composite parts under 20 pounds,” says Mick Maher, program manager in DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office. “Although metal parts are cheaper to make, their additional weight leads to sub-optimal performance of the system. Through TFF, we aim to develop a versatile composite material and an adaptable forming process to allow affordable fabrication of multiple part configurations from the same work cell.”
TFF has two main focus areas — how to make aerospace composite materials more affordable and how to process this new material into useable product form, Maher says. In current composite manufacturing, developing the tools to process materials into products takes a great deal of time. Any design changes in the platform necessitate redesign of the tools resulting in high cost and schedule delays.
“Tooling processes can take six to 12 months per design cycle, significantly pushing out the timeline for production,” Maher continues. “By developing flexible forming solutions to allow for multiple parts from one work cell, we believe we can shorten the tooling and production cycle for parts—which typically includes an initial design and two re-design periods—down to three years, from today’s average of about six years.”
The TFF program is seeking a tailorable short-fiber composite feedstock that is stampable and moldable and yields aerospace-grade properties. It also is looking for technologies to create a tailorable forming work cell capable of manufacturing multiple part configurations with minimal reconfiguration costs and allowing rapid fabrication cycle time.
“If we’re successful, this program should reduce the weight of military systems by making composite parts as affordable as metal, eliminate the lengthy and costly re-tooling burden, and open new design space for small composite parts,” Maher says.
The TFF program seeks expertise in fiber development, resin formulation and composite processing. The Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) solicitation is available on FedBizOpps at http://go.usa.gov/3ebtH. For more on TFF, visit http://www.darpa.mil/program/tailorable-feedstock-and-forming.
