Minutes of the Felix Meeting
December 3, 2004
 
Long Cables: 
 
Martin needs to have sign-off on the cable drawings. There will be a change needed: the word bubble has to be eliminated. 
 
Delivery of “Titan” prototype cables is delayed until 12/23! 
 
Our schedule per RFP being sent out 12/3 is most likely still too optimistic:
12/17/04 Submit P.O.
1/30/05 (1-1)  Fab Two qual cables & (2-1) Fab 2 first article sets
2/28/05 (3-1)  Fab 8 sets
2/11/05 (4-1)  Assemble (2-1) first two article sets (OPTION 1)
3/11/05 (4-1)  Assemble (3-1) eight sets (OPTION 1)
3/28/05 (4-2)  Fab 8 remaining sets (OPTION 2)
4/15/05 (4-3)  Assemble 8 sets (4-2) (OPTION 3)
 
According to the present tower schedule, the cables fabricated to this schedule could be used starting on tower 7 the earliest. 
In order to equip the towers 3-6, need to retrieve as many good cables as possible from Parlex and start Q/A program on every Parlex cable, in essence bypassing coupon testing. 
 
The Q/A acceptance will be based on Hiro’s thermal cycling. Hiro will continue testing C3 to observe further via failures and get a better estimate of the failures vs thermal cycles. He then will recommend acceptance tests with a certain limited number of cycles related to the required total number of cycles through assembly and integration (between 2 and 10) at temperature close to qualification levels. 
 
RFP for alternative long cable supplier was prepared by Bev and David N. and went out before COB Friday. Bev will talk to bidders to discourage non-bids, but to get more realistic delivery times, also tell them about the PO date of Dec 17.
 
For ordering the cables, need to have information on the experience others had with Tyco, Pioneer and Flex Circuit Tech. with respect to timely delivery. Dave will call Lohr (GSFC, member of the latest MCM and flex cable review) and get this info or the names of people who might know.
 
Die cutter: SLAC will build 3 different sizes to get the squeeze-out right, and then give the dimensions of the best die to supplier. SOW will have the correct finished size.

Next weeks prototype will use adhesive cut with exacto knife. Update: laser cutting might be a good choice for the adhesive.

Jim McCollough will work on die and shear test.

 
Spliced Cables:

Better news: Cirrex promises delivery for next Tuesday (Dec 7), one week ahead of schedule. Visit of Cirrex (Jan 12) visit is too late if we want to use them for the 2-piece flight cables.