Month: May 2020

This has been a short week for me: Monday was a holiday, Wednesday was work from home (the mechs were offloading mercury, which is a hazard), Friday was another work from home day. On Tuesday I was inside the sphere. After finding the x, y, z for all the electronics, I would make a tag for them, help remove them, then send them to a lab where they’re installed into a mock sphere. 

On Thursday, I went to the warehouse to find some boxes. That process was go to the storage van, pull everything out (because of course what I need is in the very back), find out they’re the wrong boxes, put everything back into the van, go to the next van, pull everything out, find what you’re looking for, put the rest of the stuff back, lay on the ground for 10 minutes because you’re covered in sweat and tired, bring the boxes back. 

Since the sub is almost done being deconstructed, soon we’ll be starting on the maintenance of all the electronics.

This week has been a lot of paperwork. Every certified item that comes off the sub needs a green tag and since I’m the intern I get to fill them out. It’s been a fun process of: fill out the tag, put the item away, oh wait there was a mistake, pull item out, fix mistake, put item away, oh wait this needs to be added, pull item out, fix tag, put item away. That for like 30 tags. After all that, I was able to help pull wire boxes off the sub. Even though they’ve been drained of their oil, all the wire attached still makes them super heavy. I also helped build a fence around the sub’s hatch so we can get in and out of the sphere safely. Once the fence was up, we started taking everything out from inside the sphere. The sub is starting to look real bare without any wires and with the foam blocks coming off. 

So much of this week has me running around doing a million things. This week started off with building storage shelves. The task sounded easy enough at first, but then all of the metal bars were bent, the wood didn’t fit in place, there weren’t enough brackets so we had to make more. By the time we finally finished it was the end of the day. The rest of the week has consisted of pulling items off the sub and unraveling the wires. The wires were so much effort to try and pull them through tiny spaces. And of course right where you can just barely get to it is a zip tie you need to cut. One of the biggest things I did this week was helping with the penetrator removal. The penetrators allow for wires to pass from outside the sphere to the inside while maintaining a seal. They are very important and need to be handled carefully. After they are pulled out, I would take them, fill out a certified tag identifying the object and it’s serial number, after inspection they would be packed up. This week has been busy but I’m glad to be back at work.

Great news, I finally went back to work! After 36 days of staying at home and reading I was itching to be working with my hands again. We’ve started dismantling Alvin. This week, the ET’s pulled off implodable volumes, which is anything that has air inside of it and has the potential to collapse with depth. These items are important; they are tracked by serial number and each one has a thick stack of paperwork to certify the depth they can go to. If one were to implode, there would be a pressure wave radiating outward that could damage the sub. Before we take anything off the sub, we have to find its location. Everything needs to be verified to check the weight balance of the sub. In the middle of the sphere is an x, y, z origin point; we measure from an item’s center of gravity to find its location. Once we have a location, I would take the item and measure the air and water weight. With those two measurements, the item’s volume can be calculated. After that everything gets cleaned up and put away. Throughout all of this, I’m recording all of the measurements and reporting them. It was busy work but it felt so good to be doing.

This week I’ve been learning about how the Navy created standards for their equipment and kept calibration records. In 1973, the Electronic Test Equipment Classification Board was created in order to control what instruments were used and to eliminate unnecessary electronics. Equipment fits into two categories: general use, meaning the instrument can be used for multiple systems, and special use, which are used on only one system. With all the equipment being used, there needed to be a system to track what instruments are where and when they need to be calibrated. To do this, the Ship Configuration and Logistic Support Information System was created. In addition to tracking instruments, it also helps in listing documentation related to each instrument, training required to operate, and calibration schedules. Calibration is important so that the operator knows that the instrument is functioning correctly. When an instrument is calibrated, it is compared to a known standard. If what the instrument measures is outside of the allowed tolerance, it needs to be adjusted. Once an instrument is calibrated, it is important to ensure that it stays within limits. If a piece of equipment is exposed to heat, moisture, or dropped it may need to be recalibrated.