ABSTRACT

It is people that are involved in the process of designing, building, and maintaining

equipment and structures. People who are not familiar with good corrosion design and practices

end up compromising system performance. Examples of the way people can affect these

compromises using the eight forms of corrosion are discussed in the paper.

INTRODUCTION

In the process of developing and fielding equipment, a number of things need to be accomplished. A need or requirement for the equipment must exist for now or in the Mure. Once the need is identified, a program can be founded to look at various alternatives to meet the need. Once an approach is established, a prototype can be built. Testing of the prototype to see if it fulfills the need is eventually accomplished

Sometimes the need gets changed as the prototype is built and tested. The prototype may meet most of the identified needs, but does not necessarily meet them all. However, the prototype may have other properties that are beneficial so the needs maybe altered to fit new scenarios.

After the prototype is built and successfully tested, consideration must be given to producibility and production. Is the prototype capable of being manufactured and fielded in a cost effective manner? Will the item be a low cost (cheap) model that requires significant maintenance and/or spare parts? Will the design be a more expensive model up front, but be capable of providing service for a number of years with little or no maintenance?

In the past, the Army basically had three sources of funds for hardware: (1) Research and Development funds were used to build prototypes and test the alternatives. (2) Procurement funds were used to buy the equipment. (3) Maintenance dollars were used to keep equipment running in the field. An economic analysis was required prior to production of new equipment. This ensured the lowest cost item would be procured. The equipment was continuously maintained with low cost spare parts that required significant down time for repair and significant logistics support for procurement.

The Army is currently experiencing that the low cost concept is not viable in today?s environment. Downsizing troops has reduced the number of people available to perform field maintenance. Reducing procurement budgets do not allow for replacement of old interns with new as often as in the past. Sophistication of the hardware has resulted in a higher dollar value for the items. All these situations are happening at the same time, making it necessary to buy hardware that is producible, reliable, and requires little or no maintenance.

To accomplish all these goals requires people. People to do the planning, the designing, the manufacturing, the fielding, etc. This paper identifies the people required in the development, manufacturing and fielding equipment and shows how some of their efforts affect the overall corrosion resistance of a piece of equipment. Good design today has to include considerations for corrosion resistance because lack of it becomes a very expensive proposition. A recent vehicle corrosion problem in Hawaii determined that 15 percent of the soldier?s maintenance dollar went toward fixing corrosion problems. Corpus Christi Army Depot determined some time ago that 25 percent of their annual payroll went to fixing corrosion problems. These costs become a significant part of the life cycle cost and must be considered if any reduction in the cost of ownership is to be realized by item/program managers.

People in the system include the performance/contract writers, purchasing /procuring agents, metallurgists, specification tiprocess writer, materials engineers, quality a

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