Northrop Grumman technology 'sees' corrosion behind paint

Mechanics may no longer have to open as many sections of aircraft to search for corrosion if they use a new technology being developed by a Northrop Grumman Corporation-led team.

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) has awarded a $1.65 million, three-year contract to the company's Integrated Systems sector to develop the Wide Area Non-Destructive Inspection (NDI) imaging technology.

"We believe that this technology could eliminate two weeks of cycle time and labour associated with the paint removal process," said Robert Klein, vice president, Engineering, Logistics and Technology, Airborne Early Warning and Electronic Warfare (AEW&EW) Systems.

This is part of ONR's Aircraft Corrosion Prevention and Control Technology thrust under the Total Ownership Cost Future Naval Capability programme. It will combine multiple methods for wide-area non-destructive inspection of aircraft into a single measurement system. Integrated Systems' AEW&EW Systems business area has been developing this imaging technology to scan rapidly painted structures for surface and subsurface corrosion.

The research further extends the work carried out under another contract for the multiagency Strategic Environmental Research and Development Programme to image surface corrosion under paint. Integrated Systems is working with Thermal Wave Imaging, Inc., a leading supplier of active thermography inspection systems, and with Naval Air Warfare Centre in Patuxent River, Maryland.

The new contract will facilitate advances in this technology. The combined imaging technique will allow the inspector to rapidly characterise large aircraft parts quantitatively in a single session, and easily document the results for comparison with future inspections. This system will be tested and evaluated on aircraft at Northrop Grumman's St. Augustine site. In the final phase, this contract will transition to one or more Naval Aviation depots.

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