Objective:

Current landing gear materials are made from high strength, low alloy, carbon steels. While these materials have high strength, they suffer from poor corrosion and stress corrosion cracking resistance. In order to protect the base metal from corrosion attack, the component is plated with cadmium. This results in the generation of hazardous liquid and solid waste streams at U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) overhaul facilities. This project will demonstrate and validate a newly-designed, high strength, stainless steel alloy with strength equal to 300M steel and with sufficient corrosion and stress corrosion cracking resistance to eliminate the need for cadmium plating.

Technology Description:

This project will employ three concepts to solve a major environmental and health problem while greatly enhancing DoD's ability to adopt improved materials for new and existing weapons systems. These concepts include: (1) a rapid and relatively inexpensive alloy design technique that uses the power of computer modeling to design a new alloy in months instead of years; (2) a newly developed high strength, stainless steel alloy that will improve performance and reduce environmental impacts; and (3) a technique for supplementing tedious and expensive measurements with data based on validated computer models.

Material performance tests conducted under the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) demonstrated that Ferrium S53, a high strength, stainless steel alloy, is a potential substitute for 300M landing gear and that it will eliminate the need for cadmium plating for this application. The largest DoD user of cadmium is Hill Air Force Base, Utah, which will be the demonstration site for implementing the alloy into DoD weapon systems. Implementing new materials in existing weapon systems has usually taken years due to the extensive testing required to generate sufficient material property data. This project will use a new concept called Accelerated Insertion of Materials (AIM) to ensure a more rapid material insertion. Sophisticated computer modeling will be used in conjunction with limited material testing to establish 99.7 percent confidence for material properties.

Expected Benefits:

Development of a high strength, stainless steel alloy will greatly reduce or eliminate the release of hazardous waste to the environment as well as worker exposure to a known carcinogen at DoD overhaul facilities. The anticipated superior performance of a high strength, stainless steel alloy will lead to fewer service failures, decreased component repair frequency, reduced process turnaround time, and increased readiness. Together, these benefits will result in reduced life-cycle costs. (Anticipated Project Completion - 2008)

Principal Investigator:
Mr. Ryan Josephson
Ogden Air Logistics Center
Applied Technologies for Landing Gear Systems
4891 East 2775 North
Eden, UT 84310
Telephone: (801) 777-5711
Fax: (801) 777-9395
E-mail: ryan.josephson@hill.af.mil