Photo By Master Sgt. J. L. Wright Jr. | NAVAL AIR STATION JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – David Watson uses a black light to inspect...... read more read more
NAVAL AIR STATION JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Fleet Readiness Center Southeast (FRCSE) unveiled a new piece of equipment during a ribbon cutting ceremony April 22.
The fully-automated fluorescent penetrant inspection (FPI) line was installed in the nondestructive inspection (NDI) shop, replacing a manual version nearly a decade old.
NDI uses phosphorescent chemicals to find cracks and imperfections in a variety of aircraft parts; the FPI allows the shop to increase productivity and streamline the process of returning parts to the fleet.
“The process is pretty simple,” said David Schuster, a process engineer supporting NDI. “We apply a penetrant to the part to try to find all of the cracks, then we put the part through a series of washing and emulsifying to remove excess penetrant. Then we add a dry developer which is phosphorescent.”
The last step is to use a black light to inspect for defects or imperfections.
“This system is designed to cut down the amount of manual labor and enhance our inspection capability,” said Dean Richards, a metals inspector and 15-year veteran at FRCSE. “The system is going to allow for a cleaner inspection process too.”
Although the manual system was capable of accomplishing the job, it had some inefficiencies the FPI will remedy.
“The old equipment could only support smaller parts and required a lot of manual pushing and pulling that risked injuries,” said Schuster. “It also required two shifts to be on production, plus overtime.”
The FPI processes much larger parts and does not require manual assistance reducing time to one shift, according to Schuster.
“It has independent inspection stations, allowing multiple inspectors to analyze the parts for cracks and move from part-to-part without interruption,” he said.
The old system processed components in a single line, preventing inspectors from moving to another part and forcing them to idle until the next part was available.
The price tag for the upgrade is more than $4.2 million, with the FPI itself valued at nearly $3 million.
“This equipment allows us to double production and improve efficiency resulting in better support for our customers,” said FRCSE Executive Officer Chuck Stuart. “That makes this equipment invaluable.”
Schuster said the FPI will allow the shop to process twice as many parts and estimates that by 2020, the NDI will process 160-200 parts per day.
“This is the first time in the 15 years I have been here that we have had an upgrade that directly impacts inspectors,” said Richards. “It’s going to be great working with this new system.”
| Date Taken: | 04.22.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 04.28.2015 07:40 |
| Story ID: | 161501 |
| Location: | NAVAL AIR STATION JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA, US |
| Hometown: | SHANNON, ILLINOIS, US |
| Web Views: | 92 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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