Photo By Heather Wilburn | Corey Dunn, right, a machinist work leader in Fleet Readiness Center East’s...... read more read more
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, N.C. – When a damaged fuselage grounded an F/A-18 Legacy Hornet at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina, artisans and engineers at Fleet Readiness Center East used innovative methods to get the strike fighter back in the air.
A cracked aft fuselage panel rendered the aircraft inoperable, and the panel’s manufacturer was unable to produce a new one within the squadron’s requested timeline. FRCE took on the task, and the depot’s engineers and artisans collaborated to meet the squadron’s needs in just seven days. The high priority of the project presented a challenge, but also an opportunity, said Jonathan Jarman, FRCE’s Digital Data Center lead.
“The Digital Data Center and manufacturing team turned (the panel) around more quickly than expected, in a nontraditional manner,” Jarman explained. “It was very clear what we had to do and everybody stepped up and did their part.”
The team had to innovate from the start: The usual manufacturer uses a chemical milling process to produce the panel, and this method was not available at FRCE. Instead, the FRCE team developed a plan to mechanically mill the panel.
The Digital Data Center reached out to counterparts at a sister depot to leverage their modeling data for the panel, which helped Jarman interpret the component’s drawing more quickly. This saved time and ensured the team had a proven set of specifications to guide their work.
“We didn’t have to reinvent the wheel,” Jarman said.
Jarman also reached out to the lead sheet metal artisan at MCAS Beaufort, who confirmed which edge of the panel would be used to position the part on the aircraft, as well as the amount of excess material to leave around the panel’s edges so it could be trimmed in place, once installed. Knowing this information gave the team slightly wider window for producing the panel within tolerance, because it reduced the chance of cutting away too much of the material and ending up with a panel that was too small for the job.
With a plan in place, the team moved forward with production.
Initially, the team planned to use a milling machine equipped with a vacuum table to complete the job, because the vacuum table would help keep the thin material in place while the mill worked. They developed a numerical control program, which creates a milling path for the machine, and were ready to start a test run when they learned the machine’s vacuum system was down for maintenance. A new strategy would be required.
A second programmer stepped up to create a numerical control program for an alternate machine, and the team developed a workaround to overcome the lack of a vacuum table: They designed and manufactured a metal holding plate that would apply even pressure to the perimeter of the material on the top side, while the machine removed excess material from the underside. With this new plan in place, they set out to create a proof of the panel. After a few rounds of prototypes that ran over a weekend, the team produced a successful finished product.
Corey Dunn, a machinist work leader in the production department, performed the setup and manufacturing of the panel in partnership with Bret Kinlaw, a Digital Data Center programmer. Teamwork was key to the project’s success, he explained.
“A project like this requires a total shop effort,” Dunn said, adding that the ability of his team to work on existing projects gave him the opportunity to focus on the F-18 work, leading to completion of the component almost 10 days ahead of schedule.
Jarman said FRCE’s mission-aligned organization structure also helped the project team overcome the obstacles, making the quick turnaround possible. The organization transitioned to the MAO model in October, in an effort to realign people, processes and skills; empower the workforce; and delegate decision-making authority to the lowest possible levels.
The MAO structure brought together the two sides of the Digital Data Center – numerical control programming and modeling– under one chain of command. Prior to the depot’s MAO transition in October, numerical control fell under the production department.
“We had one central leadership, and both teams were able to work together using one production support request document, rather than interfacing with a separate group and having separate work orders,” Jarman explained. “We were able to work concurrently on one task, which reduced the time and the amount of coordination required.
“It was very rewarding and humbling to see the capabilities that we have, and how everybody came together to get this done quickly and efficiently,” he added. “To see a real need and be able to fulfill that need is incredible.”
FRCE is North Carolina's largest maintenance, repair, overhaul and technical services provider, with more than 4,000 civilian, military and contract workers. Its annual revenue exceeds $835 million. The depot generates combat air power for America’s Marines and naval forces while serving as an integral part of the greater U.S. Navy; Naval Air Systems Command; and Commander, Fleet Readiness Centers.
| Date Taken: | 05.08.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 05.08.2020 13:53 |
| Story ID: | 369564 |
| Location: | CHERRY POINT, NC, US |
| Web Views: | 84 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, FRCE engineers, artisans innovate to get F/A-18 back in the air, by Heather Wilburn, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT