Author: Kaitlyn Beardshear Page 3 of 5

It’s a little difficult to work on the maintenance projects because we keep hitting road bumps. First we had to wait for new o-rings to be delivered. The o-rings are important because they help hold the different pieces together and seal out the water. Then we had to wait for some glue in order to attach some of the connectors. Then we found out that some of the connectors that are supposed to be titanium (an inert metal that won’t corrode in seawater) were actually stainless steel (which will corrode in seawater and take titanium down with it). The fact that the wrong metal has been installed for the last several years is a Big Deal. Luckily it was taken apart in time; some of the connectors have started corroding but it looks like the titanium end cap is intact. That would be costly and time consuming to machine a new end cap since each one is almost 40 pounds of titanium!

This week I learned about all of the different fuses on the sub, where they are, and what they protect. I’ve been going through this in order to document all of the information. As it is right now, there is no one place to find all the information about the fuses; you have to dig through files in order to find what you want. On top of that, there are some errors between what the documentation says it should be and what is actually being used. I’ve created a list of errors that need to be corrected in order to fix this. I’ve been as thorough as possible with everything I’m writing about for the fuses with the intent that once I’m finished with it, it will become a controlled document for others to use!

I spent more time working on inventory this week. Just when I think I’m done, suddenly there’s more. I did work on some maintenance projects though; there’s a wiring harness that has an issue. I’ve been testing to see if the problem is with the insulation or the connectors and there’s definitely a short. I know which wires are shorted, but I don’t know where yet. Once I find the location of the short I can get to work on fixing it. 

I’ve also been working on some of the electronics on the sphere. There’s two versions of a circuit board used to control parts that are used all over the sub. I went through and found all the boards and labeled which one is where. This way, the older ones can be replaced with the newer version.

Since several of the other techs have gone to sea, I’m going to be working on maintence for various Alvin systems. This week was spent researching and putting together charts for different parts. Sometimes it’s easy because the part number is actually on the part, sometimes it’s easy because the part is easy to find in the database, sometimes neither of those things happen. While the database is slowly becoming streamlined, there are some parts that just haven’t been updated yet and I have to dig around trying to find the information I need. In a nice little getaway from the computer, I built another wire harness this week. While the connectors are different from the wire harness I built previously, the process was the same. It goes a lot faster when you know what you’re doing and the person who designed the harness made it so the wires go in order.

Trim the wire, crimp the pins on, insert into plug

Right now, the Alvin overhaul is overlapping with its 5 year maintenance. This is part of the schedule to tune up the equipment. Before we could start the maintenance work, we needed to know if we had enough parts and consumables. I sent this week going through the ET shop, gathering up pieces, finding part numbers, and logging it all on a spreadsheet. I know that doesn’t sound that exciting but I really enjoyed organizing everything and making that spreadsheet beautiful; there are so many rules in place to highlight cells for parts we need to order and to prevent the same part number from being logged multiple times. It’s almost like data entry can be fun and useful at the same time.

Before I got my hands on this, all the pins were mixed together and unlabeled

Now that Alvin has been deconstructed, we’ve started to work on maintenance for the parts that have been removed. The mock sphere has it’s wires arranged so it can be powered up. We started off with some current measurements for the power distribution centers. The boxes are going to be redesigned so it’s important to know how much current each component draws so that the new box can provide enough to power everything at the same time. After that I started building a wiring harness to attach the data bottles to the mock sphere. The wiring harness that connects them on the sub is currently undergoing testing so we need something else in the meantime. I spent a lot of time measuring out and cutting wire (each harness needs to be 4 feet long and has 11 connectors, that’s a lot of wire), some of the wires need to be twisted in order to cancel out interference. Then it’s following the circuit diagram to get each wire to the correct connector and look nice at the same time.

A view of the mock sphere’s wiring

One of the wiring harnesses

This week wraps up the Alvin disassembly. The sphere has been removed from the frame, the implodable volumes are accounted for and put into storage, the mock sphere is almost done being set up. I’ve spent this week doing little odds and ends: finishing up on the implodables, tracking down serial numbers, cleaning hardware, and learning to tap holes. In order to mount parts into the mock sphere, we have to drill holes into the metal shelves. Once the hole is drilled, it is tapped to add threading. This allows for items to be directly screwed into the shelves instead of using nuts and bolts. Now that Alvin is no more, we continue to set up the mock sphere and then start work on maintenance.

A lot of this week has been spent doing more paperwork and filling out more green tags. One fun thing I did was help put together shelves which meant I put on a safety harness and got to climb all over the shelving unit. A less fun thing was cleaning hardware; the mechs had taken tubing off Alvin and wanted to keep the fittings on the ends. So I took them apart (got myself covered in oil in the process), cleaned them, and tried to sort them. It’s really difficult when the bins to store the pieces are labeled by part number which is not on the actual part. After that, I started hunting down all the implodable volumes that had been taken off the sub and all the spares wherever they had been stored (I’ve written about implodable volumes previous in week 14). There is a long list of all the implodable volumes and I’ve been given the job to track them all down and store them in one location. Every item has a unique serial number that has to match what is on the list. Finding the serial number on the part and matching it to what it should be is quite the endeavor. 

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.