Strut Changes

Below are some pictures dealing with an issue discovered at delivery:  the pallet struts do not the full 8" range of motion.  Jim Mills is working on fixing the problem, and the images below are being provided to NASA engineers to evaluate any issues that could arise as a result of fixing the problem.  One of the challenges in engineering design is determining the effect that one seemingly minor design change may have on the rest of the design.  In this instance, there is concern about interference of cut-off bolt heads and nuts with the adjustment threads inside the struts.

Here are Jim's comments on the images:  The threaded 5/8” bolt in the center simulates the screw size only, disregard the bolt head of that element. The bolts used are ¾” to simulate the drop bolt head size of 1  1/8” across the flats. The last two are ¾” nuts to simulate the best case scenario of trimming the drops, via the 1” hole in the side, to mostly just hex without much screw remaining.

Pallet and Strut Delivery!

Below, you can see the pallet and struts waiting between RBN and RBS to be loaded up for the trip to Houston.

Ready to go!

The pallet outside the mockup at NASA Johnson.

Jim Mills and Mike Singleton delivered the pallet and struts to NASA.  While there, they enjoyed some awesome scenery and cool NASA sights.

Mike at Rocket Park.

Jim and the medium fidelity Orion capsule mockup.

Final Coat of Paint

Pallet Center Section

Pallet Side Sections

Struts

Strut Close-up

And Now for some Color!

Jim Mills has been busy today painting the pallet, struts, and hardware.  Here are the pictures!  The paint used for the project is manufactured by Preservo.

Hardware (brackets).

Struts.

Pallet sections.

Pallet and Struts "Primed" and Ready!

The pallet and struts have been primed and are ready for painting!  A big thanks to Mr Mills for taking care of this task, and providing the pictures.  As soon as the parts are painted, they are off to NASA for installation in the Orion capsule.

The pallet sections.

The struts, with pallet sections visible at the bottom.

Brackets and hardware.

Another view of the pallet and struts.

Weld Testing with Dye Penetrant

One of the NASA requirements for the pallet is to perform dye penetration tests on the welds to check for surface defects at the welds.  The kit used was a Crack Check Visible Red Dye Pentrant Inspection System made by  Dynaflux.  The surface of the weld is thoroughly cleaned, the dye is applied, allowed to penetrate (capillary action will draw it into cracks and crevices that are not visible to the naked eye), the dye is removed from the surface.  Once the dye is removed from the surface, any cracks or surface defects will then be visible.  The images below show the testing being performed, and the results.

Initial application of the dye

Dye removed from surface, showing a very good weld.

Results of testing, again showing a very solid weld.

End of one of the adjustable struts.

Close-up of results for one of the adjustable struts.  The area around the weld shows no dye present.

Again, excellent results for one of the adjustable struts.  No dye present at the weld!

This type of testing is known as non-destructive testing because you do not have to damage the part in order to perform the test.  Our goal is to perform DESTRUCTIVE testing on one of the struts -- pulling it apart in the tensile testing machine -- and on a duplicate of the pallet.

FABRICATION COMPLETE!

The pallet and strut fabrication is now complete . . . the pallet weighs in at 482 lbs and the struts combined weigh 210 lbs.  After painting and final hardware, the total weight will be around 700 lbs.

The three pallet sections.

Another view of the pallet pieces.

Completed strut ends.