From lserna at nrao.edu Wed Oct 1 13:51:25 2008 From: lserna at nrao.edu (Lew Serna) Date: Wed, 01 Oct 2008 11:51:25 -0600 Subject: [Escoordminutes] ES Division Coordination Meeting-Sept. Message-ID: <48E3B89D.3020005@aoc.nrao.edu> Minutes for the ES Division Coordination Meeting held on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at 10:30 am, in the LL CB conference room. Attending were Lew Serna, Charley Chavez, Bob Broilo, Guy Stanzione, Gene Cole, James Sullivan, Jim Ruff, Brent Avery, Ramon Gutierrez, Martin Lopez and Jon Thunborg. BUDGET ?We begin FY2009 tomorrow. Spent accounts at 80% of your normal allotment. Do not make major purchases for Track Material. No special projects are funded except the SC. Maintenance Visit. VLBA Foundations (BR,NL) and Generator Repairs are high on the wish list for FY2009. PAN?s are expected prior to 10/17/08. VLBA -- SC (October/November), MK (August tentatively), and KP (May or June tentatively) are scheduled for this year (FY2009). A Mechanical Visit to Los Alamos will need to be made during a double maintenance day. Eric will come up with a task list for LA. St Croix will take an extended mechanical maintenance visit from 10/27/08-11/14/08 to replace Subreflector, Elevation Bearing, finish painting, install platform and change out one Azimuth wheel assembly. Steve Aragon will be in charge of the AAB during the SC maintenance visit. A more robust box to ship the subreflector was fabricated. The HN subreflector is prepared and ready for the SC installation and is shipped. The Brewster and North Liberty foundations continue to degrade and will require urgent repairs in the near future at an approximate cost of $15K each. Foundation work has been placed on the funding wish list. MK dish panels that were damaged were replaced. The damaged panels need to be repaired for spares. The warehouse has stocked remainder of Wheel assembly parts necessary to replace all remaining original wheel assemblies. We will continue in FY2010 with HN, FD and BR. AZ BEARINGS ? Four Bearings have been shipped to Rotek for repair. Only 1 of the four bearings was refurbishable. A second bearing inner race will be touched up and the bearing will be reassembled. This will give us a usable emergency spare but should not be considered for permanent use and should be labeled ?emergency spare only? as soon as it arrives. A third bearing will need a completely new inner ring fabricated. Scheduled delivery of the first two bearings is September-October of 2008. It is possible that the third bearing may be delivered sometime between November and next summer. There is a 2 year minimum lead time for new and refurbished bearings from Rotek. Other suppliers are being investigated for cheaper bearings and quicker turnarounds/shorter leadtimes. Older grease samples show that antennas 10, 20, are candidates for scheduled bearing changes. Grease samples of all VLA antennas have been taken and will be analyzed to determine the status of VLA AZ bearings as soon as possible to plan future replacements. An estimated three weeks in the AAB are required before a bearing change can occur. Parts from the bearings removed from antennas are needed for measuring and fitting of new parts and should be stored until they are scheduled to be shipped for repair. PROJECTS: CONTROL BUILDING STAIRWAYS? The Control Building Stairways are being replaced due to their rapid deterioration. The stairways will be replaced with an improved design conforming to ADA. The western stairway is complete. A new concrete landing will have to be poured at the base of the eastern stairway and the steps replaced. The eastern stairway barricaded to prevent its use. There is no urgency for this project since safety has declared that there is no need for this stairway as a means of emergency egress. Work on the eastern stairway will continue as the workload permits. No further progress. ST Croix MAINTENANCE VISIT? St. Croix Antenna has undergone extensive repair and painting work due to its severe corrosion problems. Work began on September 10 through December 21 completing 99 % of the painting. Some topcoat painting remains at the base of backup structure. In addition the AZ Wheel Assemblies (2ea), the Subreflector and the elevation bearing replacement work will be completed. Everything shipped on 9/26/08 and work will occur on 10/27/08-11/14/08. VLA ANTENNA FOUNDATION MOVEMENT? A problem with north arm antenna foundation movement needs to be addressed. It appears that the two rearward station pillars have been slowly separating over the years at CN5, BN3 and BN5 with BN5 being the worst. They have separated far enough in about 33 years that 2 bolts (one on each reward pad) can no longer be used to secure the antenna pads to the foundation pillars. Markers have been set for taking measurements to try and see which pillars are actually moving and at what rate. The plates from BN5 have been removed for modification in the machine shop. No change was observed between loaded and unloaded measurements however we will continue measuring throughout the year. It may be desirable to modify CN5 plates at the same time as the BN5 plates are being modified to save set up time. GENERATOR REPAIRS? Minor leaks were noticed at the engine rear seals and it is desirable to install a better fuel filtering system. A bearing on the generator unit also should be replacement as a PM. This work would cost around $15K and has been put on the funding wish list. POWER MONITOR? Installation of the power monitoring equipment in the Hatch gear took place on 9/19/08. Power monitoring on the internet is still pending. The power monitoring equipment will very useful in determining our power quality needs and will keep operations informed of power status at all times. A hatch gear PM and transformer PM?s were also done. A hatch switch was repaired and the Cafeteria Transformer has a leaking terminal that will need repair and surge arrestors at DW9 will need replacing. The power was returned by 3:30pm on 9/19/08. Areas of the site will require power outages for making repairs. Dates tbd. HOT WATER LOOP. A project is submitted to install a hot water loop using Correlator waste heat: The difference between the summer load and winter load is mostly due to heating (at least 300kW). However, even during the coldest mornings the cooling tower is ventilating correlator waste heat into the atmosphere. We already use some of the heat in the Control Building, but by extending the hot water loop to other buildings, we may be able to reduce our power demand. The WIDAR correlator will have an even higher heat output to work with. This project mainly consists of burying a hot water loop and using heat exchangers similar to what many complexes of buildings use. Payback on this project could be as quick as 1 year. Bob Broilo will investigate and provide further information. ABOVE GROUND STORAGE TANK COMPLIANCE?Our Above Ground Storage (AST) facility is lacking in several areas according to an inspection done by the New Mexico Environment Department. An operation and maintenance plan and several other issues need to be addressed to comply with new Petroleum Storage Tank Bureau (PSTB) AST regulations. A meeting will be held at 9:00 am on Wednesday 10/01/08 to determine plan of action. EVLA; Civil? Correlator Room: The stringent cleaning underneath the computer flooring following the installation of High Speed cabling is complete. A damp mop type cleaning every two weeks will be implemented and adjusted according to need. Correlator entry restrictions are in effect. No one will be permitted access unless working on the equipment. Booties must be worn and anti static procedures followed. There will be a meeting in November for PM inspection of the correlator room fire systems. The Civil Construction WBS will be completed in FY2009. The only civil work remaining is miscellaneous, minor tasks associated with infrastructure in the correlator shielded room. EVLA Antennas? Feeds: S-Band rings are being cut in preparation for assembly on a schedule of 2 every 7 weeks. It is desirable to install as many feeds as possible while in the AAB. Some S-band feeds will probably need to wait until the antennas are back in for overhauls. The permanent location for the Vertex Room smoke detector has been decided. The Antenna Group must complete mechanical overhauls of antennas to meet the retrofit schedule of a total of 23 antennas to the EVLA design in FY2009. A total of 20 S-band (2-4 GHz) feed horns will be fabricated in FY2009. The Ku-band (12-18 GHz) feed horns will also be fabricated in FY2009. In the event remaining VLA antennas are shut down after the 22nd EVLA antenna is complete it would be desirable to remove power and complete some of the outfitting tasks in the field for some groups. SAFETY REPORT: The North Arm French Drain will need Confined Space signage. A meeting to address action items for EPA compliance concerning Above Ground Storage Tanks is necessary and will occur on Wednesday 10/1/08. Congratulations to the Electrical Group and employees that helped with the recent power system upgrade and preventive maintenance. Job well done. One accident on the Track Crew, but it is still unknown if this is work related or personal medical. Trash cannot be placed in the Tie Pit. Only Ties should go into the tie pit all other trash must be thrown in the dump. Possible problem with the dump concerning water standing. Transporter noise test report is forthcoming. Hearing protection during transporter operations will be recommended but not required. Up-Coming training for site personal. Confined Space, Lockout-Tagout and Bloodborne Pathogens. These are required training. ANNOUNCEMENTS: ETK Training (Electronic Timekeeping) Electronic Timekeeping? the ETK schedule has slipped by over a month and we are limited on the amount of people that can be put on during year end. Year end has impacted everything. By October 20, a plan to put on as many major groups as possible will be initiated. By about November 20, the balance of NRAO North American Payroll should be on the system. Parallel testing will continue beyond November 20th until everyone feels the product is stable enough to warrant the elimination of the paper timesheet. The Antenna Mechanics will be the one of the focus groups to begin using the ETK in October. OTHER: Public Tours on October 4. PRA will be selling food (hot dogs, hamburgers etc.) in the cafeteria. Judy Stanley is looking for volunteers with simple demos for interaction with the public also in the cafeteria. Volunteers please contact Judy Stanley.