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Navy's ERM Program Projects $1.8B Maintenance Savings

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS090320-10
Release Date: 3/20/2009 3:31:00 PM

From Naval Sea Systems Command Office of Corporate Communications

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- Shipboard coatings initiatives managed by Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Engineering for Reduced Maintenance (ERM) program are projected to save the Navy more than $1.8 billion over 20 years, as outlined by naval engineers March 13.

"These are excellent examples of significant achievements in Lean Manufacturing," explained Vernon Parrish, NAVSEA ERM program manager. "These tasks use new, commercially available coating products and technologies to address old, expensive Navy coating preservation and inspection issues."

Parrish credited the teamwork of ERM members from NAVSEA and the Naval Research Laboratory for tackling the expensive and time-consuming tasks of inspecting and re-preserving shipboard tanks that contain fuel, ballast and wastewater as well as dry voids and bilges.

One of the initiatives, which is being worked in conjunction with the NAVSEA Cumbersome Work Practices Task Force, calls for a new, high-solids, rapid-cure, single-coat painting process that requires less application time than current three-coat systems. Prepping and painting the tanks and voids has traditionally been a lengthy, tedious and labor-intensive process.

The single-coat initiative uses new paints that can be rapidly applied in a single coat and take much less time to dry than previous paints. This cuts the time waiting for the initial coat to dry, along with the time required to apply two additional coats of paint and the days-long drying period between each coat.

Single-coat paints have been successfully demonstrated on aircraft carriers, submarines, amphibious ships and surface combatants. The coatings are projected to last as long as 20 years, reducing the fleet's need to replace coatings for decades to come.

"The initiative should be ready for fleetwide implementation in fiscal year 2010," said Parrish.

"Once fully implemented, the projected repair and maintenance cost avoidance is $125,000 per Los Angeles-class submarine major availability and $433,000 per aircraft carrier major availability. The potential fleet-wide cost savings over the coatings' expected 20-year lifecycle is $1.8 billion."

Another coatings initiative is the development and installation of tank wireless corrosion sensors in ballast tanks on Navy amphibious ships. The sensors constantly track the performance of the coating in a ballast tank by monitoring how effectively the coating is controlling corrosion in the tank. Because the devices are wireless, inspectors can remotely monitor the tanks, avoiding the time and expense of opening, gas-freeing and inspecting the tanks. Wireless corrosion sensors reduce the time required to inspect a tank from days to a matter of minutes, resulting in an average tank inspection cost savings of around $12,000 per tank.

The team is also developing a tank inspection tool called the Insertable Stalk Inspection System (ISIS) that links directly to Navy paperless maintenance database systems added Parrish. This should reduce overall maintenance planning and inspection costs. ISIS essentially provides a safe and low-cost method to assess coating conditions with a high degree of accuracy in tanks that are corroding.

For more news from Naval Sea Systems Command, visit www.navy.mil/local/navsea/.