Week 6 marks the halfway point for my internship. I am feeling more confident working on my own and don’t require as much guidance for my given tasks. This week included battery maintenance on the third and final battery pack for the sub. I topped the batteries off, switched out the caps, inspected the bladder, which is what holds all the comped oil surrounding the batteries, and got it stacked and bolted down. After the battery was assembled, I connected the specially designed lifting bracket and used the overhead crane to lift and weigh the battery. Next, the oil was added, and the battery was checked for leaks. So far it seems that this battery is good to go and will not have to be drained and torn back down which let me get the final filled weight of the battery assembly.
Part of my duties this week was cable maintenance. This included creating service loops in designated locations for the extra length of cables. I also salvaged reusable wires from our waste bin and cut off the connector ends that can be reused if one of the currently installed connections fails. The final part of my cable maintenance included creating new detailed labels for the power bottle connections. I was given the freedom to label them how I wanted so I chose to label where each cable landed and where it’s going to or coming from. To complete this task, I had to determine cable locations on the wiring diagrams which gave me more practice deciphering Alvin schematics as well as identifying components.
My favorite task of the week was rebuilding an oil pump that is used for transferring carnation oil. The pump is a tool and does not get installed on the sub but is used for filling batteries with oil and transferring carnation oil between 50-gallon drums and smaller containers. When I disassembled the pump, I found that the impeller had ripped apart and a few fins were destroyed. I replaced the damaged components, replaced the oil seal, cleaned up both the inside and outside of the pump, and reassembled it. This task felt familiar and much closer to the usual job duties of my current career.