ALC implements 'strategic' materiel recovery, may save millions Published Sept. 25, 2008 By Brandice Armstrong 72nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla., -- Tinker officials recently coined the phrase "from birth to rebirth." The phrase describes the implementation of a two-year proof of concept project to de-manufacture and disassembles condemned jet engine parts for re-use. In the Strategic Materiel Recovery/Reuse program the parts are melted into their original alloy materials and reconfigured into new jet engine parts. "This process allows us to recover and recycle parts made from specialty metals, such as titanium and rhenium, that were previously sold as scrap and return the material to the Air Force supply chain," said Maj. Gen. Loren Reno, OC-ALC commander. "The benefit is reduced manufacturing lead times and price discounts on future component purchases." Lt. Col. Jack Cooley, 327th Aircraft Sustainment Wing's director of Propulsion is the Air Force lead on the project. The process is estimated to save the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center more than $2 million each year in acquisition costs and roughly 200,000 pounds of material from the ALC has already been introduced into the reuse program. According to the program's assessment and opportunity statement, an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 pounds of strategic materials had been identified as "field scrap" during routine overhaul and maintenance operations each month, prior to the introduction of the re-use program. The Air Force pilot project is executed under the Propulsion Environmental Working Group, guided by Mickey Conklin, PEWG program manager. The pilot encompasses not only activities on Tinker, but also includes the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz. Efforts are underway to expand the pilot project to include the Naval Air Systems Command at Fleet Readiness Center East at Cherry Point, N.C.; and Fleet Readiness Center Southeast at Jacksonville, Fla., to increase Department of Defense benefits. Two primary benefits of the project are reducing manufacturing lead-times and decreasing foreign market dependency. Manufacturing lead-times for new engine parts can be reduced four to six months, and the need to mine for necessary alloy raw materials is drastically reduced, subsequently reducing the United States dependence on foreign markets for these materials by up to 30 percent, officials said. The program came about as both an effort to reduce foreign dependence and to preserve U.S. natural resources, and reduce energy consumption. Bob Bondaruk, a General Dynamics client executive working with Tinker on the Strategic Materiel Recovery/Re-use program, said shortage predictions were first anticipated toward the end of the 1990s. When they were discovered, Strategic Materiel Recovery/Reuse officials began researching methods to avoid the inevitable outcome. "(This is) a closed-loop de-manufacturing system to supplement the availability of raw materials," Mr. Bondaruk said.