Project Number: S3005

Project Title: Autonomous Abrasive Collection

Period of Performance: NOV23 – NOV26

Blasting processes are required in support of new construction shipbuilding efforts. Currently, spent blast abrasive is collected manually and placed into collection troughs, dumpsters, waste bins, barrels, drums, or bags for recycling/disposal. Newport News Shipbuilding tracked over 53,000 labor hours spent in 2021 on abrasive recovery in the Blast and Coat Facilities, and, estimates that over 4.8 million pounds of blast abrasive are collected each year throughout Newport News Shipbuilding’s shipyard. The objective of this project is to develop and deliver a prototype autonomous abrasive collection system to reduce the labor associated with this physically demanding, dirty and sometimes hazardous activity.
The purpose of this Center for Naval Metalworking project is to develop the prototype autonomous abrasive collection system into a Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) item that Newport News Shipbuilding, or any shipyard, will purchase and implement into their individual blast processes.

The anticipated labor cost-savings of an autonomous abrasive collection system, as opposed to the current manual process, is approximately $5.7M per CVN, $800K per VCS, and $436K per DDG-51 hull.

The project includes tasks to develop operational systems based on end use requirements defined by shipyards. The individual systems will be integrated into the final autonomous blast abrasive collection system. The integrated project team will develop the project test plan, which will highlight the activities necessary to execute the implementation plan. The executed test plan will validate that the autonomous abrasive collection system satisfies all defined requirements. The target implementation platforms for Newport News Shipbuilding will be CVN 81 and VCS Hull 806. The target implementation platform at Ingalls Shipbuilding will be DDG 143.