saving some money [Archive] - Yellow Bullet Forums

WR169

02-09-2007, 01:27 PM

I guess you have to register to view the article so here it is .

Teamwork results in lower cost, better training

By SPC. IAN BOUDREAU/Turret Staff Writer
Five Fort Knox instructors have figured out a way not only to provide better training to Soldiers learning how to be tank mechanics, but also to save the Army hundreds of thousands of dollars.

All it took was some brainstorming, elbow grease, lumber, and more than a little teamwork.

The process began months ago when the Army’s Project Manager Abrams sent Fort Knox seven pulse jet kits for the standalone live engines which trainers use to familiarize tank mechanic students with the Abrams engine, explained Jim Lowe, the director for Knox’s Abrams Training Division.

“The pulse jet itself is a system designed to clean the air filters on the M1A1 tank,” said Steven Mann, an instructor with Company A, 1/81 Armor.

The system collects engine air and fires it in 90-pound bursts out of a series of nine solenoid jet tubes in 10-second intervals. This loosens dirt and other buildup from the tank’s three air filter screens.

Unfortunately, Lowe said, the money required to install the seven systems on 1/81’s trainer engines didn’t come with the packages.

“What the kits were designed to do was to retrofit a complete tank,” said Steve Weigl, another instructor who helped develop the new training aid.

“(The engines) were made in the early ‘80s, and they had a lot of components that had to be changed and modified to fit these kits.”

Mann said that over the holiday exodus, he, along with fellow instructors Rafael Panola, Ruben Rendon, Staff Sgt. Eric Skinner, and Weigl, took one of the kits to Richardson Hall to see if they could make it work on one of the live trainer engines.

“What we found was that if we installed the kit as it was intended by (General Dynamics) to modify the trainer, we could not use it for training,” Mann explained.

“It’s an air cleaning system, so most of it sits inside a plenum box, which is like inside the intake manifold on a car, so it’s all hidden in there. The private then can’t see anything and can’t work with it.”

Furthermore, the contract with General Dynamics to install the kits would have run into hundreds of thousands of dollars—all for something that eventually would be invisible to the tank mechanics learning the system.

Weigl thought up a workaround. Could they take the internal component—the hosing, the air collectors, and the solenoid pulse jets—and mount them on a board external to the air intake?

As it turned out, it was indeed possible—and for a grand total of about $100, which covered the plywood, 2x4 beams, and paint needed to create wooden stands for the seven systems.

Rendon and Panola got to work on building the stands, which are about four feet high and three feet wide. Panola worked with Weigl and Mann to make the electrical systems work, and Mann made modifications to the mounting hardware.

“Once we had the stand, we applied the components to it, connected all of the plumbing, modified the trainer with the electrical harnesses and (Line Replaceable Units),” Mann said.

“Then we modified a cleaning wand hose to connect the engine to the training device.”

After the team had built their prototype, they tested it and made sure everything ran smoothly.

“Then we did it six more times,” Mann said.

The finished product is a training aid that sits beside one of Richardson Hall’s training engines. Trainees can see where the hoses connect to the solenoids, and stand behind to feel the 90-pound bursts of air intended for the air filters.

The device has already been incorporated into the training program for tank mechanics, Mann said.

“The beauty of it all is that the kids can actually see this thing working, they can feel it work, they can feel the air pulse out,” said Rendon. “So it’s easier for them to understand the mechanics of the system when they can feel it and get hands on it.”

The team agreed that the device represents a lot of teamwork between military personnel and civilian employees.

“One person could not have gotten this done,” Mann said.

“When the Soldiers go out to the unit, they have a better understanding of how the system works,” Weigl said. “Before, all they got was a movie.”

“Now, they can see it, feel it, and troubleshoot it,” said Mann.

The five instructors received battalion coins from Lt. Col. William Maddox, and Weigl submitted the idea to the Army’s Suggestion Program.

“I think we can say that with this system, the way we designed it and put it out there for them,” he said, “it produces a better-trained Soldier on the pulse jet system.”

[img]http://www.thenewsenterprise.com/content/articles/2007/02/09/turret/news03.jpg[img]
Staff photo by Spc. Ian Boudreau
STEVE WEIGL (LEFT), AN INSTRUCTOR WITH COMPANY A, 1st Battalion, 81st Armor Regiment, watched as Pvt. Christopher Colbert, Pvt. William Henderson, and Pvt. Eliezer Rivera felt bursts of air emit from an Abrams jet pulse air filter cleaning system.

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