Minutes of the Tracker
Meeting
April 1, 2004
Agenda:
- Robert: remarks on the Lehman review Tracker presentation
- Jeff Tice: bottom tray core
- Riccardo/Sandro: schedule for bottom/top tray tooling;
documentation; production readiness
- Mike: status of interface hardware procurement and qual test
plans
- Riccardo: Plyform mid-tray progress; sidewall prepreg status;
readiness for ESPI test
- Sandro:
status of work at G&A preparing for MCM mounting and ladder
mounting/wire-bonding of bottom trays; documentation status; plans for PRR.
- Albert or Dave: MCM status
- A.O.B.
Last week's action items:
1. Robert: give Jeff Tice
information to procure cables for T/V testing
2. Riccardo: check whether
glass beads could be used to ensure bondline thicknesses in the bottom tray
assembly. Done---answer was no
3. Mike: correct the epoxy
called out in the BOM for closeout assembly (and other tray drawings)
4. Riccardo: help Plyform
correct the prepreg RFQ with the right specification table. Done
5. Jeff Tice: procure
Keenserts for the grid simulators
6. Riccardo: send the ESPI
procedure to Robert for release. Done
7. Robert: release the tray
vibration procedure. In progress
Older open Action Items:
1. John Ku and Mike Opie:
draft or redlined static and vibe test plans
Robert reported that the
Tracker presentation to the Lehman review was reasonably well received, but
there was a great deal of concern expressed about the schedule. We presented a 3-week slip relative to the
February PMCS status, such that Tower A completes environmental test just
before the August shutdown. Reviewers
pushed Robert hard on finding ways to improve on this, to make sure that the
Tower A delivery doesn’t slip into September.
Lowell promised that for the next review (end of September) there will
be one tower on the Grid at SLAC taking cosmic-ray data. (Unfortunately, status presented in these
minutes erode even the schedule presented at the review by several weeks---bottom
tray assembly start, mid-tray assembly completion, MCMs)
Jeff Tice reported that he
is able to cut the heavy core material with scissors, one cell at a time. He said the result looked better than the
Plascore cut. He predicted a 4-week
lead time for new cores, not including shipping to Italy. Sandro said that Plyform had to trim cores
for EM trays. They don’t like doing it
but will if absolutely necessary for the first two trays. It was suggested that they take some bottom
tray cores back to Pisa and trim them there, so as not to impact Plyform.
Sandro said that next week
they will release the bottom tray assembly fixture drawings to G&A and will
have the parts back at the beginning of May.
Sandro said that results on
the mid-tray dimensional measurements can be found in the CDR peer-review
presentations. Robert will pass that
information on to Martin. In fact, all
of those presentations can still be found online at http://www-glast.slac.stanford.edu/Tracker-Hardware/Peer%20Review/peer.html.
They did not have time to make the same
measurements on the top and bottom trays in the mad rush last summer to get the
EM tracker assembled and vibe tested before the Alenia shutdown (déjà vu).
Mike reported that the
flexures are still scheduled for April 9 delivery. He will confirm this status with Advanced Machining. Joe will witness the CMM inspection of one
complete set April 9 at the vendor. All
but Borden's side flexures and 1 set for SLAC tests will ship to Pisa
immediately. SLAC will also send the
CMM data to Italy.
He and Jeff are ordering
interface hardware parts for 36 joints.
12 are for the static test, 12 for the EM vibe test, and 12 for
engineering development. 2 of the
latter were ordered on a credit card for early delivery, about a week from
now. The other 34 are expected about a
week later. These will not be flight
parts, as the drawings are not released.
Arthur said that he is waiting for latest round from Martin on checking
and redlining the drawings. We will need
a review also by Pisa before releasing the flight production. Arthur has a clamp concept sketched out for
Mike to review. Mike will send Pisa a
copy of this drawing.
Jack reported that they have
started correlation of data and model for the thermal-vacuum test.
Mike reported that a
designer is working on modifying the static test grid simulator part for the
new interface. The changes are
minimal---just move the holes to match the new side flexures and modify the
bore and counterbore to match the new interface hardware. Since the fixture is steel, we don’t have to
mess with Keenserts and bushings.
Sandro expressed some
concerns about handling the static test grid simulator. It is very heavy, so there is a risk of
injury or damage to a tray. There is
also concern about whether the 2nd tray in the fixture will hold up
to repetitive use (don’t we have other trays that could be put in its place?---Robert) Mike said that heat straps are not needed
from the loads point of view, but at least a spacer is needed to fill the gap
between sidewall and closeout. Mike
will set up a telecon for next week for discussing static load test issues and
fixtures.
Mike reported that another
designer is working on the vibration test fixture redesign. Mike wants to get the requirements
definition correct. There is a meeting
this afternoon on this topic. They have
to relocate mounting holes and make them very similar to the planned holes in the
Grid. Also, he will correct the
protection scheme for cables during vibration and transportation. He will also add some tooling balls, but
that is easy. He said that Martin has
some other ideas that would complicate the design. Nanda stressed the need to keep the fixture very stiff. Mike concurred.
Mike reported that Robert
Ruland, manager of alignments group, is meeting regularly with Mike and Martin
and others to go through the alignment strategy. They are making progress.
Another meeting will be held today.
Emilio will send tomorrow some
drawings for the inner container concept.
Jeff Tice is working on getting a new outer container specification and
design. There is not problem to get
almost any desired height from the same vendor as the last container. Once he knows the height of the inner
container, he can specify an outer container height much reduced from the
previous case and also specify the interior fit (looser than the last time). He will also add features near the bottom to
strap it to a pallet.
Nanda said we need more
complete environmental specs for the outer container, for vibration and
humidity, as well as shock. Sandro said
that he will put the recorder data on the web from the road transportation
loads back and forth across Italy.
We also need to refine
requirements for tray transportation within Italy (Ku and Opie?). The general concept is that the tray will be
mounted in the special aluminum box from Bari (connected via the closeout
inserts). That box will be in a
protective envelope and packed in a rigid box with foam. Since a lot of trays will have to move at
once, they will design a shipping container that can hold a lot of trays at the
same time.
Sandro reported that has not
yet started gluing closeouts into the tray panels. There is a delay in starting up that he and Nanda will try to
understand when then visit Plyform tomorrow.
They will send this information to Robert and Jim.
Inserts have been bonded
into >60 closeouts. Unfortunately,
Riccardo discovered that the inserts were all made from 7075-T6 aluminum, which
is not approved by NASA, for reasons of susceptibility to stress-corrosion
fractures. The same material was used
throughout the EM tower. The MAR,
section 7.2.6, says no Table-III materials may be used without a special materials
usage agreement. Jeff will talk to Fred
Gross about the implications of this.
The MSFC-522B document in which Table-III can be found says that
Table-III material can be considered in cases where the environment is benign,
which seems to be very much the case for the Tracker (the LAT has strict
humidity control requirements because of the CsI in the calorimeter, and the
Tracker is deep in the center of the instrument).
Robert will check Sandro's email
of drawing issues against Jeff's spread sheet.
Robert informed the group that Jeff and Martin have put a very complete
listing of drawings and parts on the web page, to replace the old drawing tree. It can be found at http://www-glast.slac.stanford.edu/Tracker-Hardware/default.asp,
click on New Drawing Tree and Parts List.
MCM status: Teledyne
guarantees the first lot of 25 flight MCMs by April 23 (4 weeks ARO) but will
try to pull that schedule in by a few days if possible. All 25 are kitted as of today and are
started into the production line. The
second lot of 25 should be a week later, at which point we will have enough for
Tower A.