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Show Ifs HILL TOP TIMES Friday, November 30, 1984 is-- ,:' Vacu-form- ed vinyl mold " - :M: .. Lewis Thurgood, craft sheet liilllilsW air- metal Story mechanic, Aircraft Division, holds a vinyl sheet of encapsulated tools. and photos by Jean .5 IIP . N Williamson ' OO-AL- C Public Affairs Office Aircraft production process boosts mainienance efficiency Have you ever tugged on those pesky plastic containers that encapsulate small hardware or makeup and cursed the inventor of that tough stuff? Well, take heart Lewis Thur-gooAircraft Services Section, is d, adapting plastic encapsulation to production efficiency in the Directorate of Maintenance. An aircraft sheet metal mechanic with a background in manufacturing processes, Mr. Thurgood was recently asked to tailor encapsulation to making vinyl molds for shadowing tool boxes and for duplicating broken aircraft parts. Both adaptations are f i ' Smaller tools are first coated with Thurgood. "When we contracted for a new plating wax for quick release after ' "The air is sucked out part, it usually varied slightly but not so quickly and evenly from the plaswhen we manufacture our own pattic, heat presses the vinyl into small tern with the vinyl mold. Also, it takes items," said Mr. Thurgood. "The wax two to three three months to receive creates space between the tool and new aircraft parts and we have to buy them in large quantities," explained vinyl, and after stripping, can be heat- proving cost effective and time . saving. In the Aircraft Division alone, there are more than 2,000 tool boxes and hundreds of thousands of tools which must be inventoried and stored each day. A shadow box tray insert best serves these requirements. Mechanics simply lay out their tools uniformly on a tray according to size and type. Clear plastic is pulled over the tools' and the machine's hood lowered over the plastic and tray. In 10 seconds the vinyl is heated and the air vacuumed out, encapsulating the hardware With a pliable, vinyl mold. vacu-formin- ed and used again." Using the pliable plastic vacu-- ; formed mold as a cover or top, a second inner shell mold is made from sealed air polyurethene squirted into the - vinyl. This cream-colore- d polyd urethene adds about a dense reinforced body, under the original vinyl mold. Because the vinyl material is clear, it's painted before the foam is injected to produce a better silhouette. Plans are to replace the clear vinyl material with white poly vinyl chloride for better silhouetting of tools and for easier cleaning. tool The present Styrofoam-line- d boxes are being replaced as they, wear, break or become impregnated with grease and grime. Originally funded for tool shadowing, the, machine's real value is its quick duplication of broken or worn aircraft parts. "We can take a broken part from an, aircraft, and vacu-forit exactly for size, dimension, and the broken part fitted to the new part is identical, said Mr. 4 lllll illiii -- xv $jrfri n liili m cur-.vatur- e; " - V;, f ' J A' v (;!'. IV. II Leslye Hansen, electrician, Aircraft Division, : peels plating wax from e Mr. Thurgood. pattern making cuts time and costs tremendously." Encapsulation is also used on individual parts broken from larger units and for replacing aircraft intake e the screen louvers. Cost-wis- e runs 93 cents per frame for 10 seconds versus $4.78 a frame for the flat plastic method. This old method involved laying a flat sheet of plastic over the part and taping it to form a mold. Not only was this molding procedure extremely difficult, the process took two hours. According to Riney Lind, PRAM Project Officer, the project was funded by the Air Force Logistics Command in March 1983 as a productivity, reliability, availability, and maintainability project for tool silhouetting. Original PRAM costs r were $22,000 with savings to be $1,692,930. "Adding expected the costs realized from making aircaft parts saves even more," said Mr. Lind. "In-hous- four-poun- Mil f - Jf" g. vacu-machin- ; five-yea- $ 'a f$ - j s small tool. Tools are dipped before in plating wax vacu-formi- to ng allow for quick release. Dave Olsen, aircraft sheet metal worker. Aircraft m SllllWli1WIMI.fa i t ) ( J .:wv. l . ... i til . fe awiVTi i mm r W in m tfWin ;iiit,i .ii. I msmMmK-:mm. - MiwimJ,.it i . Division, examines his new shadow box tray insert. vinyl-mold, ed |