Photo By Keith Hayes | A massive Paxman engine sits in the purpose-built Dynamometer testing bay awaiting a...... read more read more
The Dynamometer Section of Production Plant Barstow, Marine Depot Maintenance Command, determines whether an engine needs repair or replacement when a vehicle comes in to the facility aboard the Yermo Annex of Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, Calif.
Chris Ware is the supervisor of the Dynamometer section, or “Dyno” for short, which is part of the Motor Shop at the Plant.
He said to determine if any engine being worked on at the Plant actually needs the attention of mechanics, the Marine Corps performs what is called the IROAN process. “That stands for inspect and repair only as necessary.”
The IROAN process saves the Plant and the customer a lot of money because it reduces the occurrence of unnecessary work on an engine.
“IROAN reduces repair cost by about 60 percent compared to automatically breaking down an engine and working on it,” the native of Santa Cruz, Calif., said.
“When we get an engine, we separate it into the engine itself and the transmission,” Ware said.
From there, his crew tests those two components separately on the Dyno to determine if they are operating within manufacturer’s specifications.
“The Dyno runs the engine or transmission at the speeds it would experience in any situation,” he said, “and we can put loads on a particular engine to simulate certain kinds of stress it might undergo in a combat theater.”
The testing of the engines is important enough that Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) and MDMC spent 13.5 million dollars on a separate building to house the seven Dynos used to test engines of all types.
“We have two 1,000 horsepower Dynos, four 2,100 horsepower Dynos, and one 6,400 horsepower Dyno used for the Paxman engines,” Ware explained.
“If the Dyno determines that an engine and transmission are within specifications, then we reassemble it and in some cases we test the two together before reinstalling the engine in the vehicle,” he said.
If any discrepancies are found, heavy mobile equipment mechanics break down the engine or transmission and rebuild them, Ware said.
Currently the Dyno section is testing engines used in vehicles belonging to the Marine Corps, the Army National Guard, the Air Force, the Coast Guard, and the Navy.
“That includes engines for the MTVR (Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement truck); the LVSR, (Logistics Vehicle System Replacement truck); MRAPs (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles); the M-ATVs (MRAP All-Terrain Vehicles); as well as the dump trucks for the National Guard and the Paxman engines for the Navy and Coast Guard,” Ware said.
“The Coast Guard uses Paxman engines,” he said. “The Paxman engines are 3,600 horsepower apiece the Coast Guard uses four of them in their cutters.”
The room-size Paxmans can take up to two days to move into the purpose-built Dyno testing bay and hook them up to test them.
“That testing can simulate a cutter going against the tide or in rough seas, or any number of other adverse conditions the craft might expect to encounter,” Ware said.
The Dyno section is just one step performed by artisans at PPB to ensure they are turning out a quality product for the warfighter, he said.
Robert Schneider, one of the heavy mobile equipment mechanics operating the Dynos, agreed with Ware, adding quality and reliability are among the goals of every artisan in the section.
“We make sure that the engine can do everything it’s supposed to do when the operator presses the button,” he said. “I’m very aware that the work we do at the Dyno shop and at the Plant can save lives, and I take my job very seriously.”
| Date Taken: | 04.27.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 05.01.2017 13:18 |
| Story ID: | 232137 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE BARSTOW, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 162 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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