By Kristi Britt, Public Affairs Specialist Norfolk Naval Shipyard

Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) launched the America’s Shipyard video series earlier this year, dedicated to highlighting high-performing employees and NNSY achievements. In the latest video, Shipyard Commander Capt. Dianna Wolfson ventured to the cold spray booth to meet with the team members who worked together in supporting an urgent job for the USS Pasadena (SSN 752).

“This team took on two valve-body repairs that were essential in supporting the undocking,” said Wolfson. “Due to availability, ordering new parts for the Pasadena could possibly have taken a year to obtain.”

Using the additive repair method known as cold spray, the team was able to repair the component that would have previously been beyond capable repair, providing a durable solution.

“In 2019, [then NAVSEA Commander] Admiral Moore had a list of five priorities, the number one of them being cold spray use within the shipyards,” said Submarine and Piping Mechanical (Code 265) Branch Head and NNSY Cold Spray Lead Dan Stanley. “We hit the ground running to get cold spray implemented in the shipyard, did our first cold spray job in 2020, and from that point on we’ve been steadily using the technology here.”

Code 265 received the valve-bodies and sought out the best way to repair them. When the manufacturer said it would take a year or more for a replacement, the team looked into cold spray to get the job done, going through the process to perform the repair in the booth. The Mechanical Group’s (Code 930) Inside Machine Shop (Shop 31)  stepped up to the plate, programming the robot used in the booth and performing the machining so that the repair could be completed all in one mounting.

This cold spray effort directly supports one of NNSY’s key Strategic Framework pillars, Process Improvement and Innovation, improving delivery of the mission and smartly leveraging available technologies to maximize resources.

"I think cold spray is going to revolutionize the idea of any ship, anytime, anywhere,” said Shop 31 Cold Spray Machinist Jeff Brittingham. “With the incoming portable systems, we’ll be able to take these better repairs out to anywhere. We’ve had parts from Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PSNS & IMF) come to NNSY for repair and we can get the ships out to sea with parts with better repairs that are going to add decades to the lives of those components. It’s a valuable asset to our Navy and to America’s Shipyard.”

“The efforts displayed by these talented individuals not only displays amazing teamwork and our ONE TEAM mindset, it also shows how dedicated they are to honoring our ONE MISSION and vision of America’s Shipyard to repair, modernize, and inactivate our Navy’s warships and training platforms, and deliver on time, every time, everywhere to protect America,” said Capt. Wolfson. “It’s because of each of them that we are one step closer to delivering the Pasadena back to the Fleet.”

You can check out this video and other episodes of America’s Shipyard on the NNSY Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/NorfolkNavalShipyard1/, the NNSY YouTube page at https://www.youtube.com/user/NNSYBroadcast, and Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) at https://www.dvidshub.net/unit/NNSY.

This series will be an ongoing effort and new episodes will be premiering in the future. Stay tuned to NNSY’s social media platforms to see the next episode. If you have an idea that should be recognized for a future episode, please email nfsh_nnsy_pao@navy.mil and provide a detailed response of who or what we should recognize and why.

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