When parts are no longer available or become difficult to source, often the most time and cost effective solution is to reverse engineer a replacement. Curtiss Wright’s Nova has decades of experience reverse engineering precision-machined products as well as standard and specialty fasteners for commercial nuclear and fossil power plants, the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, and the industrial market. We have reverse engineered over 1,000 mechanical items, including valve stems, check valve hinge pins, plungers, pump shafts, and many others, all in accordance with Nova’s 10CFR50 Appendix B Quality Program.

When Curtiss-Wright reverse engineers an obsolete part, it ensures that replacements will be available for future or emergency use; our reverse engineering process is NUPIC audited, and we work closely with our customers through the process to ensure a successful outcome. Our reverse engineering process can also eliminate the need to inventory expensive parts that could be replaced with standard or generic parts supplied by Curtiss-Wright’s Nova. After we reverse engineer a part and determine it to be generic, we can then supply it, often at a significantly reduced cost and lead-time.

Obsolescence is one of the most serious issues facing the nuclear power industry today. Of the 100,000 parts a plant typically relies on every day to stay up and running, one in five will be difficult – or impossible - to replace (as defined in INPO NX-1037). That’s 20,000 potential obsolescence issues quietly waiting to make themselves known when least expected or desired. Failure of an obsolete part can lead to extended outages, loss of revenue and greater operating costs. Having a proactive strategy in place will help avoid costly maintenance and repairs due to a part being unavailable.

Nova, a product and service brand of Curtiss-Wright Nuclear, provides a low cost solution to obsolescence with the reverse engineering of precision machined components for ASME Section III, safety-related, commercial products and systems requirements.

Nova’s parent company, Curtiss-Wright Nuclear, has a major role in obsolescence solutions and has partnered with PKMJ to develop the ObSolutions Program. This program enables Curtiss-Wright Nuclear and PKMJ to team with nuclear utilities to develop generic solutions to obsolescence that affect multiple utilities. Nova’s role as a short-term solution for quick turnaround and emergency response is to provide the necessary precision machined components and replacement parts necessary to keep equipment running until a longer-term solution can be met by another Curtiss-Wright Nuclear product or service brand.

An acceptance process undertaken to provide reasonable assurance that a commercial grade item to be used as a basic component will perform its intended safety function and, in this respect, is deemed equivalent to an item designed and manufactured under a 10 CFR Part 50, appendix B, quality assurance program.

Nova Machine Products analyzes, tests, and qualifies materials and components under its 10 CFR 50, Appendix B and American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) NQA-1 Nuclear Quality Assurance Program.

Nova is audited by ASME, NIAC and NUPIC organizations. These audits include approvals of Nova’s commercial grade material dedication and other progressive quality programs designed to permit industrial manufacturer’s continued participation in the nuclear industry.