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Tinker maintenance support squadron's idea may save big bucks

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  • By John Parker
  • Tinker Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  An innovative idea by the 776th Maintenance Support Squadron may save about $40,000 in anticipated costs during the installation of a pumping and piping system that supports B-1 bomber maintenance work, officials say.

Earlier this year, the 76th Aircraft Maintenance Group was facing a four- to six-week shutdown of a system that supplies chilled air and hydraulic power necessary to work on Lancers in Bldg. 2122.

To maintain and upgrade up to four B-1s at a time in the hangar, the 76th AMXG relies on large outdoor chillers that feed cold water through pipes that hook up to four Centralized Aircraft Support Systems located at each dock.

The CASS units are key to B-1 maintenance work because they provide hydraulic power to run the Lancers' avionics, keep their sophisticated electronics from overheating and battle high temperatures for maintainers working inside the 146-foot-long fuselage.

However, due to the age of the outdoor chillers and the pumps and pipes that feed the CASS units, the interconnected system was prone to multiple shutdowns followed by scrambling to get them repaired quickly.

Jerry Osborne, a B-1 production chief put it this way: "We actually live and die by the quality and the performance of those CASS units."

The 76th AMXG had earlier replaced all four CASS units and installed a new boxcar-sized chiller outside. That left only one part of the chain of equipment still old and unreliable: the chilled water loop which includes a set of pipes, control system, pumping system, valves and gauges that circulate chilled water to cool the CASS units.

The job of removing and replacing the outdoor piping system was assigned to the engineers, technicians and pipefitters of the 776th MXSS.

James S. "Scott" George, the 776th MXSS's installation flight chief, said the project as originally planned would have involved extensive on-site welding, mounting pieces of equipment individually and ensuring components fit and worked properly. That job could take four to six weeks, he said.

Work-lead pipefitter Jake Taron, however, hit on an idea that would allow the 776th MXSS to finish most of the work off-site: The squadron could pre-assemble the piping system and a 1,000-gallon mixing tank on flat steel skids in Bldg. 9001, then transport the rig -- all 10,000 pounds of it -- to Bldg. 2122.

"By coming up with this skid, like a module, we can just go get it all done, drop it down, then install the lines coming from the building and make it a lot quicker," Mr. George said. "So where you would have been doing all this piping and building one piece at a time, now you just do it here on this skid. "

Mr. Taron said the need for the work to be finished quickly motivated the idea.

"I knew that was going to be an extreme challenge," Mr. Taron said. "So by coming up with this, I feel like we're going to be able to get it accomplished in a couple of weeks."

During the installation and CASS shutdown, now scheduled for July, the 567th will be forced to use portable ground support equipment that does the work of the CASS, but about 50 percent less efficiently and requires more people to operate, Mr. Osborne said.

Jiby Varughese, tactical team lead with the 76th AMXG, estimated the portable units would cost the group up to $20,000 a week in extra costs during the CASS shutdown.
Although they're keeping their fingers crossed, Mr. George and the 776th MXSS expect to shave about two weeks off the original estimated installation time.

"By doing it this way, we actually get to put it together and know that it fits," Mr. George said. "By designing this skid with all of the equipment installed as a module, it will save both money and labor hours, which will allow the Installation Flight to complete the project early and turn the system back over to AMXG so they can continue to support the warfighter down range."

The pre-assembly idea has already prevented at least one problem that would have cost time under the original plan. When the 776th squadron installed the mixing tank on a skid, they discovered a flange width was off by 6 inches.

The manufacturer had listed the dimension wrong, and the problem was fixed in Bldg. 9001.

Mr. George praised Mr. Taron's brainchild as "brilliant." Mr. Taron said there "wasn't a whole to it."

"We do it every day," Mr. Taron said of the 776th. "We come up with simpler ways to do things."

Project members also included the 776th MXSS/MXDEA Engineering Flight team; pipefitters Mike Mills, Bobbie Herin and Terry White; welders Jimmy Addington and Gene Walker; and electricians Thomas Brown and James Beaver.