Contact: Eric Peterson, Program Manager | 715.463.4390 | epeterson@alionscience.com
Grantsburg, WI, Date August 7, 2009 – The Alion-McNally Center for Production Technologies based in Grantsburg, Wisconsin, has released its latest in a line of successful engineering efforts in support of the U.S. Army.
The Drive Focus Shaft Assembly is an integral focusing assembly for the TOW 2 weapon system used on Bradley Fighting Vehicles (BFV). Recently, however, the Army had difficulty procuring the assembly, so it called upon A-M CPT to find a solution to the procurement problem.
During the fact-finding phase of the project, A-M CPT engineers discovered that potential manufacturing sources were reticent to bid on the assembly due to unrealistically tight tolerances required for eight small ball sockets embedded in the former design. Engineers speculated that the Drive Focus Shaft Assembly became unavailable to the Army due to this manufacturing challenge that seemed to concern potential fabricators.
A-M CPT engineers reasoned that if the shape of the ball sockets was changed from spherical to conical, they could then be more accurately measured, and the resulting tolerances would be more acceptable to potential manufacturers. The redesign successfully met its goal without affecting the functionality of the assembly. In fact, the change made the new design easier and more cost effective to manufacture, increasing the number of potential sources and allowing the Army to once again procure the Drive Focus Shaft Assembly for TOW 2 weapon system repairs. A-M CPT also designed and built a custom test fixture used to validate technical specifications for the assembly.
Melissa Anderson, the Alion project engineer in charge of this effort, summarized, “The engineering modification we instigated – changing the sockets from sphere-shaped to cone-shaped – was huge. These ball sockets are extremely small, and the geometric change made all the difference, making this assembly attractive once again to potential manufacturing sources.”
Doug Johnston of the Army’s Close Combat Weapon System TOW Division Engineering office agreed. “This effort provided several benefits to us. The original part was procured to a specification controlled drawing that was not adequately defined for manufacture or competitive procurement. The original drawing provided sources, but none of them still manufactured the part. We were in a procurement situation where we needed parts…so this effort provided us a manufacturable drawing package that can be competitively procured.”
Alion Program Manager Eric Peterson, who leads the Grantsburg-based group, concluded, “We took a part that was not reasonable even for precision manufacturers to consider fabricating, and we redesigned it so manufacturers can accept the job. We are proud of our contribution, in that TOW 2 systems can now be returned to Soldiers in the field more quickly and cost effectively. This project is a true success.”
About A-M CPT
The Alion-McNally Center for Production Technologies (A-M CPT) is an alliance between Alion Science and Technology (http://www.alionscience.com) and McNally Industries, providing a full range of advanced engineering solutions and precision manufacturing services to support the United States Armed Forces. The Center specializes in expedited development, prototyping and manufacturing to meet the rigorous scheduling requirements of the military.
The Alion-McNally Center for Production Technologies (A-M CPT) is not a joint venture, pooling arrangement, partnership or formal business organization of any kind. Alion Science and Technology and McNally Industries are independent contractors and neither party acts as an agent for the other, except and only in strict accordance with the terms of an existing subcontract between the parties.
A-M CPT is headquartered in Grantsburg, Wisconsin. For more information, go to http://www.a-mcpt.com.
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