Steve Andersen, CCM Assistant Director for Military Programs, and Bob Coffelt, Vice President for Armor and Protective Products at 3TEX, both refer to the affiliation between their organizations as a “win-win” relationship, and it is one where the advantages have gone far beyond the usual implications of that expression. 

Headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, 3TEX specializes in 3-D woven and braided composite reinforcement materials.  The company is a member of CCM’s Industrial Consortium, and Coffelt is quickly learning about both the tangible and intangible benefits of that affiliation. 

Although he has worked with CCM for close to a decade, the interactions have accelerated in the past nine months as the result of an Army contract focused on lightweight materials.  The work addresses a range of issues, including energy absorption, damage tolerance, and blast resistance for a variety or armor and military vehicle applications.

“CCM is a world-class facility for composites manufacturing technology,” says Coffelt, who often spends several days a week at the Center.  “They also have access to an incredible talent pool.  And they have a very nice consortium tool that provides us with good technical networking opportunities.  They just bring so much to the table.”

“The company’s new Zplex material,” Andersen continues, “is opening all kinds of possibilities for the work we’re doing on tactical vehicles.”  Andersen sees great potential for this conformable total sandwich system to reduce the weight of parts while also substantially decreasing the labor involved in producing such systems.

“One of the best aspects of our work with 3TEX,” he says, “is that their interaction with, and investment in, CCM has made us so intimately familiar with their products that we have started independently inserting them into our other programs.”

Coffelt echoes this benefit from the other side:  “We’ve begun to sign nondisclosure agreements to work with other materials suppliers that are our competitors,” he says.  “CCM helped make that happen.”

He also appreciates the science behind what CCM does.  “They can help us understand our own materials better than we understand them ourselves,” he says.  “The Center has superior capabilities for infusion, processing, materials characterization, and testing.  Not only would it cost us more if we went to industry for these services, but we wouldn’t get the same value as we do from CCM.”

Coffelt also praises CCM for the flexibility the Center brings to collaborative research.  “They can pick up on an idea quickly, but then stop and change direction if we realize that it isn’t working,” he says.

Andersen emphasizes that the collaborations between CCM and 3TEX—whether internally funded by the company or externally supported through SBIR and STTR grants—have all been extremely interactive.   “That’s the model we’ve established for our relationship with our consortium members, and it’s working really well with 3TEX,” he says.

Coffelt agrees.  “CCM is a Center of Excellence for the Army,” he says, “which has opened a lot of doors for us.”

Center Hosts Industrial College of the Armed Forces

by Diane Kukich

On March 2, 2007, CCM hosted a group of faculty and students from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.  The program presented by CCM faculty and research staff was tailored to the needs and interests of the group, which consisted of some 20 participants.

Technical talks addressed intelligent processing, design and analysis methods for Navy and Army composite structures, and emerging advanced multifunctional materials.  The afternoon concluded with a lab tour.

“Our decision to focus on advanced materials made close examination of your work at CCM an important stop on the seminar’s tour of composites experts,” said Gerard M. Mauer, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy Commandant.  “The close contacts between the Army Research Laboratory and your Center surprised our students, for whom the visit was a highly instructive demonstration of the productive collaboration possible between the Defense Department and civilian researchers.  They were impressed by the passion of your researchers, as well as by the depth of your knowledge of defense needs.”
 
The mission of the College, which is located in Washington, D.C., is to “prepare selected military and civilians for strategic leadership and success in developing a national security strategy and in evaluating, marshalling, and managing resources in the execution of that strategy.” Graduates are awarded a Master of Science degree in National Resource Strategy. 

CCM is one of a number of academic, industrial, and government sites that host ICAF students.  Others on the itinerary this year included a helmet-making plant, ceramic plate manufacturers, and materials suppliers in the U.S., as well as EADS materials lab in Ottobrun Germany, and NP Aerospace in the U.K.  The group also visited U.S. Army TARDEC to see armor upgrades and kits.
 
The students were joined by Dr. Sylvia W. Babus, Lead Strategic Materials Industry Study, and John F. McShane, CIA Chair and Representative of the Director of National Intelligence.  CCM hosts included Director Jack Gillespie, Assistant Director for Technology Dirk Heider, and Assistant Director for Military Programs Steve Andersen, as well as associate scientists John Tierney, Nick Shevchenko, and Joe Deitzel.

Babus credited Gillespie with “always leaving our students much better able to understand questions about the advantages and disadvantages of composites and what the prospects are for overcoming these in the interests of life-cycle costs savings, weight savings, embedding sensors, and so on.”

Gillespie is gratified that ICAF students and faculty have made CCM a regular stop on their educational tour.  “Before the group came this year, we learned that they had hosted Bob Lacovara from the Advanced Composites Manufacturers Association earlier in the year,” he said.  “He actually showed pictures of vehicle body parts developed at CCM as examples of composites replacing metal.  By visiting CCM, industrial sites, and defense labs, these students have the opportunity to see the entire cycle—from the exploration of new ideas through design and manufacturing to applications in the field.  We’re very pleased to be part of the collaborative structure that results in products to improve the safety and security of America’s soldiers.”