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FEASIBILITY STUDY OF A NEXT GENERATION VPPA WELDING CONTROL SYSTEM

Award Information

Agency:
National Aeronautics and Space Administration 		Branch:
N/A 		Award ID:
2798 		Program Year/Program:
1987 / SBIR
Agency Tracking Number:
2798 		Solicitation Year:
N/A 		Solicitation Topic Code:
N/A 		Solicitation Number:
N/A
Small Business Information
General Digital Industries Inc
6705 Odyssey Dr Huntsville, AL 35806
View profile »
Woman-Owned: No
Minority-Owned: No
HUBZone-Owned: No
 
Phase 2
Fiscal Year: 1987
Title: FEASIBILITY STUDY OF A NEXT GENERATION VPPA WELDING CONTROL SYSTEM
Agency: NASA
Contract: N/A
Award Amount: $204,000.00
 

Abstract:

NEW APPROACHES TO AUTOMATIC CONTROL ARE NEEDED IF VARIABLE POLARITY PLASMA ARC (VPPA) WELDING IS TO REALIZE ITS FULL POTENTIAL AS A RELIABLE, REPEATABLE, COST EFFECTIVE PROCESS.PRESENT VPPA CONTROL SYSTEMS ARE FIRST GENERATION, ELEMENTARY COMPUTER-BASED SYSTEMS THAT DEPEND ON PROGRAMS WHICH ARE EXPERIMENTALLY DERIVED, AND DO NOT COMPENSATE FOR ANOMOLIES INJECTED BY TOOLING, PART, AND OTHER INDEPENDENT VARIABLES. THIS SBIR EFFORT WILL INVESTIGATE THE FEASIBILITY OF USING REAL-TIME MEASURES OF JOINT QUALITY TO CONTROL ALL ASPECTS OF WELDER OPERATION. THE KEY DETERMINANTS OF JOINT QUALITY WILL BE ESTABLISHED, THE ABILITY TO SENSE EACH QUALITY DETERMINANT USING AVAILABLE TECHNOLOGY WILL BE INVESTIGATED,AND AN ESTIMATE OF CONTROL ABILITY WILL BE MADE FOR EACH DETERMINANT. IN PHASE II, A SET OF REQUIREMENTS FOR THIS NEXT GENERATION CONTROL SYSTEM WILL BE DERIVED, AND A PROTOTYPE WILL BE DESIGNED AND IMPLEMENTED. IF SUCCESSFUL, THIS INNOVATION WILL TRANSFORM AN EXPENSIVE, SENSITIVE, AND HUMAN-ERROR-PRONE PROCESS INTO A RELIABLE ANDEASY TO USE PROCESS THAT CAN PRODUCE SIGNIFICANT PRODUCTIVITY GAINS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF AEROSPACE STRUCTURES.

Principal Investigator:

Dr Dipak V Vora
Principal Investigator

Business Contact:

Small Business Information at Submission:

General Digital Industries Inc
7702 Governors Dr Huntsville, AL 35805

EIN/Tax ID:
DUNS: N/A
Number of Employees: N/A
Woman-Owned: No
Minority-Owned: No
HUBZone-Owned: No