TA-55's Cold Machine Shop Provides Valuable In-house Fabrication

Scientific research is central to TA-55's functions, and the technical articles resulting from this research are central to our quarterly publication. This article, however, salutes different sort of TA-55 asset: the Nuclear Materials Technology Division (NMT) Cold Machine Shop (There is a "Hot" Shop in PF-4 that works with radioactive materials, hence the distinction "Cold.") The Cold Machine Shop, or "Shop 55," has been an important part of TA-55 since the Plutonium Facility opened in 1978, and its in-house fabrication work contributes to many technical programs both within and outside of TA-55.

Figure 5. The TA-55 machinists (L to R): Archuleta, Valdez, Garcia, Mosley, Busch, Baca, and Lemler.

From its founding in 1978, the shop was part of the Mechanical Division (MEC) until October 1, 1992, when MEC Division was dissolved. The shop then became part of NMT. The seven machinists in the shop work with groups in NMT and other divisions to supply parts for lab experiments as well as for use in gloveboxes in Building PF-4 (the Plutonium Facility). They fabricate a wide variety of components and assemblies of varying complexity, using all the standard machine shop equipment, as well as two Computer Numerical Controlled (CNC) mills, and one CNC lathe. "If it's in a glovebox in PF-4, we probably made it," says Assistant Supervisor Richard Lemler.

Other Shop 55 employees are Supervisor Leonard Busch, David Archuleta, Angela Baca, Jose Garcia, John Mosley, and Robert Valdez. Some were trained through the Laboratory's apprenticeship pro-gram, and together they boast a com-bined 181 years of machining experi-ence. Archuleta and Garcia operate the CNC mills, which are "not user friendly," in Archuleta's words. Baca operates the CNC Quickturn Lathe, turning out parts that are accurate to within .0001 of an inch. Mosley is currently learning to operate this machine, though for the most part he operates the more conventional equipment, as do Lemler and Valdez. The shop also has some welding capabilities.

The machinists at Shop 55 handle jobs ranging from the production of one special-ized prototype part to the thousands of parts being used in the Cassini Project. The more standard-size jobs can often be completed in just one day. In addition to making parts, the machinists often work closely with the scientists, engineers, and other personnel who are their customers to help design or modify parts. In a survey of Shop 55 customers taken in August 1994, customer Larry Tellier wrote, "I really appreciate the machinists' point of view when I have a problem to solve before I even submit a drawing."

Shop 55's customers particularly value the machinists' willingness to work together and make midprocess changes, thus saving time and money. In the survey, customer Wayne Smyth explained, "On many occasions changes must be made to a drawing because of an unforeseen obstruction in the original design, or because of an engineering change in scope by the project supervisor or technician. Such changes may cause substantial problems with an outside organization because of contract agreements leading to excessive cost escalation." On the other hand, Shop 55 can more easily accommodate its customers because it is internal. Many customers agree that having to use an external shop would greatly slow down their projects and increase costs.

Figure 6: View of the Cold Machine Shop, with conventional mills in the foreground and the blue CNC lathe in the back.

Besides being convenient and cost-effective, TA-55 machinists are very easy to work with. While an outside contractor would demand complex official drawings, Shop 55 machinists are willing and able to work from sketches made on everything from napkins to paper lunch sacks, thus saving their customers time and money. Customer Gene M. Jacquez commented in the survey that shop employees have quickly completed many urgent orders by working overtime and doing whatever else was necessary to get the job done. Richard Lemler says that they always have more than enough work to do and often have to work overtime. "If we're too busy or can't do the job here in the shop," he says, "we'll take it to the appropriate shop that can handle it." Customer Rudy Fernandez wrote in the survey that he knows the TA-55 machinists by their first names, and that the possibility of frequent contact with them makes his job much easier. Customers agree that Shop 55 and the machinists who work there are a valuable asset to NMT Division.

This article was contributed by Laura Linford.

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