From lserna at nrao.edu Wed Apr 1 16:36:30 2009 From: lserna at nrao.edu (Lew Serna) Date: Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:36:30 -0600 Subject: [Escoordminutes] ES Division Coordination Mtg Minutes-March Message-ID: <49D3D04E.9000400@aoc.nrao.edu> Minutes for the ES Division Coordination Meeting held on Tuesday, March 31, 2009, at 10:30 am, in the LL CB conference room. Attending were Lew Serna, Charley Chavez, Bob Broilo, Gene Cole, Brent Avery, Ramon Gutierrez, Guy Stanzione, Jim Ruff, Chuck Thompson and Jon Thunborg. BUDGET ? The continuing resolution has been lifted. Budgets are the same as last year. No track material will be purchased this year so far. We have 1200 ties remaining and track work will consist of rebuilding intersections and making urgent repairs. Fuel tank compliance has been specially funded but no other special projects are funded thus far. Several lists containing spares and projects that might qualify for government stimulus funds have been submitted. Please send me any spare parts lists we might purchase with these funds and that will save us operations money later on. Some candidates for this list could include Azimuth Bearings, Wheel Assemblies, VLBA -- MK (09/10/09-09/16/09), and KP (4/28/09-5/05/09) are scheduled for this year (FY2009). A Mechanical Visit to Los Alamos will need to be made during the double maintenance days in June. Eric has come up with a task list for LA. 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. The warehouse has stocked remainder of Wheel assembly parts necessary to replace all remaining original wheel assemblies including a spare. Also need to measure pillow block bore dimension on pillow block that was brought back from St. Croix. We will continue in FY2010 with Maintenance visits to HN, FD and BR. Repair of the subreflector brought back from St. Croix is in progress. MK dish panels that were damaged were replaced. The damaged panels will need to be repaired for spares. A Servo Preload Modification has been designed by Paul Johnson (LA) and Eric Carlowe for swapping servo preload in order to load the opposite side of the servo gearbox gears. This should double the life of the gears in the gearbox. Outfitting of modification will begin at KP following successful tests at LA this month. It is possible that passports will be required in future visits to St. Croix. 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 a scheduled replacement and should be labeled ?emergency spare only? as soon as it arrives. An acceptance trip to witness assembly of the second bearing has been made. A third bearing will need a completely new inner ring fabricated. A visit to witness assembly and acceptance of the third bearing is tentatively scheduled for April and tentative delivery of all three bearings is April. There is a 2 year minimum lead time for new and refurbished bearings from Rotek. Older grease samples show that antennas 25,10 and 20, are candidates for scheduled bearing changes. New grease samples of all VLA antennas have been taken. Antenna 25 has the worst sample and will be next in line for bearing replacement sometime in August ?09. This is an EVLA antenna. An estimated three weeks in the AAB are required before a bearing change can occur. Bob will measure pre post fits to help determine support for the idea that Antenna 25 should be next. 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. An estimated 1 month will be required to replace the AZ bearing for antenna 25. Bolts for three antennas have been ordered this year. . 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 PAINT MAINTENANCE VISIT?It is Apparent that a follow up painting program should be initiated preferably in the fall. It is desirable to send a crew to St. Croix to continue painting areas where bleed through is evident. If this is not possible due to budgetary constraints, then perhaps the site techs could do the painting for 3 weeks straight with hired help sometime in the fall. 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 CN6, BN3 and BN5 with BN5 being the worst. They have separated far enough in about 33 years that 1 bolt (one on a reward pad) can no longer be used to secure the antenna pad to the foundation pillar. Markers have been set for taking measurements to try and see which pillars are actually moving and at what rate. The plates from BN5 and CN6 have been removed for modification in the machine shop. No change has been observed between loaded and unloaded measurements however better, finer measurements need to be taken throughout the year. Modification of the CN6 plates and BN5 are complete and the plates are reinstalled. If the pillars are moving apart it is felt that there is no practical way of preventing the movement. It would be more desirable/practical to build an additional foundation next to the bad ones. If the pillar movement is very slow it may be enough to modify/redesign the mounting plates in order to make up and correct for the movement that has occurred thus far. 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. 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. 125vdc GENERATOR SUPPLY MODIFICATION. A safety switch and other related wiring changes to the VLA Standby Generator Battery supply have been completed in order to make servicing the batteries a safer operation and without interruption of the battery supply to the generator system controls. New safety procedures and training will have to be provided to personnel who service the batteries. EVLA; Civil? Correlator Room: The Air Conditioning system needs to be tied in to the CPCC for controlling of air handlers when desirable and during emergency shutdowns. ESD monitoring equipment will be installed for use prior to entering the shielded Correlator room. EVLA Antennas?The Antenna Group must complete mechanical overhauls to 23 antennas to meet the retrofit schedule for EVLA design in FY2009. This goal is currently on schedule A total of 20 S-band (2-4 GHz) feed horns will be fabricated in FY2009. Fifteen S-band feeds are assembled so far. All rings have been cut for the S-band. The Ku-band (12-18 GHz) feed horns will also be fabricated in FY2009. This is on schedule. A prototype insulating of the feed cone/vertex room is done in EVLA antenna 25 in an effort to improve temperature stability in the feed cone/vertex room. Bob will monitor and compare antenna 25 vertex temps to other antennas. In the event remaining VLA antennas are shut down after the 22nd EVLA antenna is complete it may be desirable to remove power and complete some of the outfitting tasks in the field for some groups. SAFETY REPORT: Three Accidents for ES Division so far this year. Accidents and Incidents should only be discussed internally and not away from work. Lew Serna and Peggy Perley have been charged with developing a plan to improve the safety program at NRAO NM by the end of the month of April. All employees are urged to attend monthly safety meetings. Safety committee meetings are usually held on the second Thursday of the month at 09:30am. ANNOUNCEMENTS: ETK Training (Electronic Timekeeping) Electronic Timekeeping?A meeting will take place on April 7 to determine the status of ETK. An announcement will follow announcing the switchover to date to ETK. Meanwhile keep using and testing the system. *2008 PERFORMANCE EVALUATION PROCESS TIME LINE* *April 1 Employee self-appraisal process begins *? Supervisors begin soliciting information about employee work performance from other supervisors and coworkers. Supervisors will conduct brief individual or group meetings with employees to discuss the upcoming process and to distribute copies of the appropriate performance appraisal forms including a list of goals that were set last year. Exempt employees are required to complete a self-appraisal. Although non-exempt employees are not required to complete a self-appraisal, they should be given a copy of the non-exempt appraisal form and encouraged to complete it. Exempt employees begin completing the appraisal form by identifying any changes in their key responsibilities and reporting on their progress toward achieving the goals set last year. Any other significant accomplishments they may have had during the year should also be identified. Finally employees should identify goals for next year. *May 1 Employee self-appraisals due ? *Employees return their self-appraisal forms to their supervisors with the appropriate sections completed. Supervisors begin writing employee evaluations based on their observations, coworker feedback, and the self-appraisal completed by the employee. Supervisor reviews the draft goals for the coming year and modifies as appropriate. *June 2 Appraisal Forms Completed *? Supervisor reviews completed performance appraisal forms with division head and receives approval. Supervisor begins scheduling and holding evaluation meetings with employees. *June 30 Employee Meetings Concluded *? All evaluation meetings to be concluded and appraisal forms signed by the employee. Employees should be given sufficient time (at least 24 hours) to review and comment on the evaluation. Based on information provided by the employee, supervisors should make corrections and changes as appropriate. *July 7 All Forms Delivered to HR *? All of the original completed and signed appraisal forms must be forwarded to the appropriate Human Resources Office. A copy of the signed appraisal should be provided to the employee From lserna at nrao.edu Thu Apr 30 09:55:26 2009 From: lserna at nrao.edu (Lew Serna) Date: Thu, 30 Apr 2009 07:55:26 -0600 Subject: [Escoordminutes] ES Div. Coordination Mtg. meeting-April Message-ID: <49F9ADCE.3040704@aoc.nrao.edu> Minutes for the ES Division Coordination Meeting held on Tuesday, April 28, 2009, at 10:30 am, in the LL CB conference room. Attending were Lew Serna, Charley Chavez, Bob Broilo, Mel Peralta, Martin Lopez, Guy Stanzione, James Sullivan and Jon Thunborg. BUDGET ?Budgets are the same as last year. The budget report is due to come out soon. No news on stimulus money. Spare parts lists we might purchase with stimulus funds that will save us operations money later on has been submitted. We are likely to see $17K for Gearbox issues. This money has to cover oil, equipment and training. VLBA -- MK (09/10/09-09/16/09), and KP (in progress) are scheduled for this fiscal year. A Mechanical Visit to Los Alamos will need to be made during the double maintenance days possibly in June. Eric has provided Mechanics with a task list for LA. We need to inform operations if a third day is required. 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 and is expected in FY2010. Work is preferred in the fall not in the winter since it requires much time to cure. The warehouse has stocked remainder of Wheel assembly parts necessary to replace all remaining original wheel assemblies including a spare. Also need to measure pillow block bore dimension on pillow block that was brought back from St. Croix. We will continue in FY2010 with Maintenance visits to HN, FD and BR. Repair of the subreflector brought back from St. Croix is in progress. Tony has been transferred to track crew so another person has to be trained to repair. Working Tony on overtime may be another option. MK dish panels that were damaged were replaced. The damaged panels will need to be repaired for spares. A Servo Preload Modification has been designed by Paul Johnson (LA) and Eric Carlowe for swapping servo preload in order to load the opposite side of the servo gearbox gears. This should double the life of the gears in the gearbox. Outfitting of modification will begin at KP. It is possible that passports will be required in future visits to St. Croix. 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 a scheduled replacement and should be labeled ?emergency spare only? as soon as it arrives. An acceptance trip to witness assembly of the second bearing has been made. A third new bearing is being fabricated. A visit to witness assembly and acceptance of the third bearing will be scheduled as soon as all specs are met. There is a 2 year minimum lead time for new and refurbished bearings from Rotek. Older grease samples show that antennas 25, 10 and 20, are candidates for scheduled bearing changes. New grease samples of all VLA antennas have been taken. Antenna 25 has the worst sample and will be in line for replacement in 2010. This is an EVLA antenna. 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. Antenna 5 will be brought into the AAB for a gearbox replacement. An estimated 1 month will be required to replace the AZ bearing and gearbox for antenna 5. Bolts for three antennas have been ordered this year and should arrive in time for Antenna 5 swap. Two bearings should arrive on Wednesday. The bearing with the touched up race will be labeled as ?SPARE ONLY?. The second bearing will be used on Antenna 5. Bob Broilo will be the Bearing change supervisor and will coordinate with Guy on the Gearbox replacement. 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 PAINT MAINTENANCE VISIT?It is Apparent that a follow up painting program should be initiated preferably in the fall. It is desirable to send a crew to St. Croix to continue painting areas where bleed through is evident. If this is not possible due to budgetary constraints, then perhaps the site techs could do the painting for 3 weeks straight with hired help sometime in the fall. Jon will recommend that Site Techs do spot repairs until enough funds are available for a follow up painting program. 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 CN6, BN3 and BN5 with BN5 being the worst. They have separated far enough in about 33 years that 1 bolt (one on a reward pad) can no longer be used to secure the antenna pad to the foundation pillar. Markers have been set for taking measurements to try and see which pillars are actually moving and at what rate. The plates from BN5 and CN6 have been removed for modification in the machine shop. No change has been observed between loaded and unloaded measurements however better; finer measurements need to be taken throughout the year. Modification of the CN6 plates and BN5 are complete and the plates are reinstalled. Martin reports that there is another foundation (CN7) that may need modification sometime soon. If the pillars are moving apart it is felt that there may be no practical way of preventing the movement. It is believed that if this is the case it would be more desirable/practical to build an additional foundation next to the bad ones. Another option is that if the pillar movement is very slow it may be adequate to modify/redesign the mounting plates in order to make up and correct for the movement. In any case it would be desirable to get an outside structural firm to inspect and make a recommendation. 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. 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. No progress.. 125vdc GENERATOR SUPPLY MODIFICATION. A safety switch and other related wiring changes to the VLA Standby Generator Battery supply have been completed in order to make servicing the batteries a safer operation and without interruption of the battery supply to the generator system controls. New safety procedures and training will have to be provided to personnel who service the batteries. VLA AZ GEARBOX?s (Antenna 5 etc..)--Antenna 5?s #2 gearbox experienced a catastrophic failure failed on Wednesday, April 15, 2009. Antenna 5 #1 gearbox was ok. We have a complete spare gearbox to replace the bad one with. The bad gearbox is salvageable and will be repaired. Electricians, servo technicians, fiber optic technicians, and mechanics will conduct some preparatory work for the separation procedure in the field, with final preparations conducted in the AAB between May 12 and May 26. VLA Az Gearboxes are due for oil changes. A plan to change around 10 antennas per year is being formulated beginning with remaining 6 VLA antennas and then continuing with all EVLA antennas @ approx. 10/ year. Training and equipment will be required. Guy Stanzione will be in charge of preparing for the gearbox inspections, training, repairs and replacement on antenna 5. He will coordinate with Bob Broilo on Antenna 5 activities. VLA FRM?One VLA FRM focus ring gear was damaged last year. The spare FRM was cannibalized in order to repair the Antenna. A new ring will have to be ordered for repairing the cannibalized spare at a cost of $3K. FRM inspections will resume during the next antenna overhaul cycle to check for possible FRM overhaul tasks. BALLAST DOORS-- New project is proposed to convert manual opening of ballast car doors to hydraulic controlled opening of the doors for dispensing ballast from the cars. Much dust is created and the operator is too close to the doors to be able to observe the dispensing properly. This Project will cost around $8K. EVLA; Civil? Correlator Room: The Air Conditioning system needs to be tied in to the CPCC for controlling of air handlers when desirable and during emergency shutdowns. ESD monitoring equipment will be installed on the door closest to Ops, to be used prior to entering the shielded Correlator room. For controlling traffic to the correlator, a special one way door will be installed at the end of the elevator hallway. It will be used for exiting the correlator area only. It will be capable of being propped open for passing equipment through if necessary. Safety will schedule fire alarm testing with Operations and will coordinate that effort with the annual battery maintenance. EVLA Antennas?The Antenna Group must complete mechanical overhauls to 23 antennas to meet the retrofit schedule for EVLA design in FY2009. This goal is currently on schedule A total of 20 S-band (2-4 GHz) feed horns will be fabricated in FY2009. S-band feeds are assembled so far. All rings have been cut for the S-band. Feeds 16 and 17 will be assembled for lamination on week of May 11. The Ku-band (12-18 GHz) feed horns will also be fabricated in FY2009. This is on schedule. A prototype insulating of the feed cone/vertex room is done in EVLA antenna 25 in an effort to improve temperature stability in the feed cone/vertex room. Bob will purchase a thermal imager to see where we are losing most of the heat in the feed cone. In the event remaining VLA antennas are shut down after the 22nd EVLA antenna is complete it may be desirable to remove power and complete some of the outfitting tasks in the field for some groups. Only one L-Band feed is marked ?tested? it may be necessary to test more L-Band feeds soon. SAFETY REPORT: *ES Div. Accident?s year to date:* SO 2009-006 Employee punctured hand with screwdriver (slipped). No lost/restricted workdays. Rec'd medication. SO 2009-005- VLA Shuttle Bus was rear-ended by a car as it was stopped to make at turn into the ship/receiving area at the SOC building. SO 2009-004 VLA site, employee was struck in the trunk/rib area by a Uniloader filled with railroad ties. Bruising in rib area. Not OSHA recordable. Employee did not seek treatment. SO 2009-003 Employee was welding with another employee in the track crew welding area. Flash burns to eyes. OSHA recordable, lost time. SO 2009-002 Vertex Room on Antenna 8, employee was injured when he struck his head on a bolt on the S-band feed cone. He was transported to Socorro Hospital ER. He received wound care and a tetanus shot and pain meds. No lost workdays. *Site Safety Meeting:*The last meeting was held on March 26^th , 2009. There were 36 employees in attendees. The topic was Accident Reporting and Investigation. The training was conducted by Chuck Thompson. *Next Site Safety Meeting:* The next site safety meeting will be on April 30 @ 3:00pm in the VLA Cafe. The topic for this meeting will be Hazard Communication. *Inspection(s)/Audit(s): * Site building inspections are ongoing so far there have been 4 inspections conducted this year. Maintenance Building (21 violations), Generator Building (2 violations),Carpenter Shop (3 violations), Water and Fire Pump Building and Lift Station (2violations). 1st Aid kit audits complete: Control building (1^st and 2^nd floors),Annex Building, Cafeteria *Fire Brigade:* On Friday 17 April the VLA Fire Brigade with the help of Bob Basset, Datil New Mexico Fire Chief conducted an inspection and tested the 1.5, 2.5 and 3 inch fire hoses located on the VLA Fire Truck. All 1.5 and 3 inch passed the testing. Out of the 2.5 inch hoses that were tested, four (4) failed and have been taken out of service. *Fuel Tanks: *Inspections are ongoing. The culverts that run under the tracks need to be cleaned out the rest of the way. ANNOUNCEMENTS: ETK Training (Electronic Timekeeping) Electronic Timekeeping?? For /exempt/ staff members, we are requiring that you utilize /both/ the ETK system and the paper timesheets beginning with the current pay period April 21^st through May 20^th . All NRAO /non-exempt/ staff members are required to utilize /both/ the ETK system and paper timesheets for the pay period beginning April 25^th through May 8^th . /Supervisors/ will approve the paper timesheets as usual but will also approve all ETK entries at the end of the pay periods. *Computer Security Briefing/Training?*Training for all hands in the Cafeteria on Thursday April 30, 2:00 PM . Door prizes and refreshments. *PEP Training --- *PEP training will be offered for all employees receiving evaluations (those FT and PT employee working 500+hours/yr) covering the topics of *?Performance Management and FMLA?.* This training is being delivered by Joyce Oliner who provided PEP training for supervisors last May. In addition, Joyce will be providing employment law training for supervisors this spring, titled ?*Hiring, Performance Management, and FMLA.? *The training session is scheduled on May 13, 2009 as follows: * * VLA CAFETERIA EMPLOYEE SESSION: */ 9:30 AM-10:30 AM/* ES ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT ENGINEERING (STANZIONE?S GROUP) SITE AND WYE (CHAVEZ?S GROUP) ARRAY AND CORRELATOR OPERATIONS( VLA BASED) BUSINESS SERVICES (VLA BASED) ELECTRONICS DIVISION (VLA BASED) */ 11:00 AM?12:00 PM/* ANTENNA GROUP (GUTIERREZ?S GROUPS ELECTRICAL /HVAC (BROILO?S GROUPS) SAFETY (VLA BASED) EPO */ 1:00 PM?3:00 PM/* MANAGER/SUPERVISOR SESSION * * *2008 PERFORMANCE EVALUATION PROCESS * *April 1 Employee self-appraisal process begins *? Supervisors begin soliciting information about employee work performance from other supervisors and coworkers. Supervisors will conduct brief individual or group meetings with employees to discuss the upcoming process and to distribute copies of the appropriate performance appraisal forms including a list of goals that were set last year. Exempt employees are required to complete a self-appraisal. Although non-exempt employees are not required to complete a self-appraisal, they should be given a copy of the non-exempt appraisal form and encouraged to complete it. Exempt employees begin completing the appraisal form by identifying any changes in their key responsibilities and reporting on their progress toward achieving the goals set last year. Any other significant accomplishments they may have had during the year should also be identified. Finally employees should identify goals for next year. *May 1 Employee self-appraisals due ? *Employees return their self-appraisal forms to their supervisors with the appropriate sections completed. Supervisors begin writing employee evaluations based on their observations, coworker feedback, and the self-appraisal completed by the employee. Supervisor reviews the draft goals for the coming year and modifies as appropriate. *June 2 Appraisal Forms Completed *? Supervisor reviews completed performance appraisal forms with division head and receives approval. Supervisor begins scheduling and holding evaluation meetings with employees. *June 30 Employee Meetings Concluded *? All evaluation meetings to be concluded and appraisal forms signed by the employee. Employees should be given sufficient time (at least 24 hours) to review and comment on the evaluation. Based on information provided by the employee, supervisors should make corrections and changes as appropriate. *July 7 All Forms Delivered to HR *? All of the original completed and signed appraisal forms must be forwarded to the appropriate Human Resources Office. A copy of the signed appraisal should be provided to the employee