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Show Ordinance Plant Exceeds Production Rate Originally Set Up ' Women Dc.'v.r More Than Ifaif Of The At Plant Con structed ly Government; Six Types of A niiaiinition Manufactured Manu-factured By O. N. Malmquist The Utah ordnance plant in Salt Lake is "passing the ammunition" ammu-nition" to the troops on fighting fronts and in training camps at a rate will be excess of the plant's rate capacity when It began be-gan operations. This fact was disclosed to Utah newspapermen -during a recent inspection tour of the installation under the sponsorship of the Ninth Service Command. Exact production figures are restricted information but ex-j ecutives of the plant proudly announced an-nounced that output Is exceeding exceed-ing expectation; that acceptance of ammunition suitable for aircraft air-craft use has greatly exceeded contract requirementssince;; the beginning of production;' that costs have been reduced during nine months by 75 per cent for .30 caliber and 50 per cent for .50 caliber ammunition. And women are doing more than half the job. They constitute consti-tute about 50 per cent of the plant's personnel and more than SO per cent of the production line employes. The plant, constructed by the government and operated by Remington Arms Company, Inc., under a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, con-tract, manufactures six types of ammunition in two sizes .50 caliber armor piercing, tracer and incendiary and .30 caliber ball, armor piercing and tracer. The manufacturing process, based primarily on the "stretching" "stretch-ing" of metals, involves thirty-odd thirty-odd steps in four separate operations. opera-tions. The cartridge case, which starts out as a small brass cup, in stretched into the prewar I shape by punching machir.-.s, !cacn operation elongating the cuplike piece of metal a little more. The bullet likewi-.o proceeds pro-ceeds through a series cf operation opera-tion from jacket, steel core or slug to the finished bullet. The primer or "cap" is produced in another series of operations. The three components are then brought together, the primer inserted in-serted in the case, the case loaded load-ed with powder, the bullet inserted in-serted in the case and the finished finish-ed cartridge emerges. The entire process, except some visual inspecting in-specting and packing, is done by machine. The most dangerous operations are the manufacture of the primer and the loading of the case. The Utah plant is one of four such government plants operated operat-ed by Remington Arms company. From these four plants, and the ones both owned and operated by the company, there was produced pro-duced during the last seven and one-half months of 1942 more small arms ammunition than the entire country turned out during the four years of World War No. 1. Thus the small arms ammunition ammu-nition industry generally is passing the ammunition to the fighting men on a scale which dwarfs all previous efforts. Since the beginning of the war Remington workers have soared from 4,000 to more than 80,000. Army officers and company executives in charge of the Utah plant point with special pride to a lost time accident rate far below the average of the industry indus-try generally; and the lowest percentage of scrap (metal trimmings) trim-mings) of any small arms ammunition am-munition plant in the country. They attributed the large reduction reduc-tion in production costs mainly to the fact that personnel is now much better trained than at the beginning of operations and the rising volume. Inspection and testing of the ammunition is an important phase and one which is carried out by the company and the army ordnance department with painstaking thoroughness. After the company inspectors are satisfied that the ammunition is right, ordnance department experts ex-perts take over and give it further furth-er scrutiny. It is then "spot" checked by actual firing in the testing room. A "dud" might be fatal to someone on the fighting front and every possible precaution pre-caution is taken to see that no faulty cartridges get out of the plant. As a wholly owned government installation, the plant has the status of a military post and the army is charged with the responsibility re-sponsibility of guarding the reservation, res-ervation, protecting the property, proper-ty, enforcing economy is expenditures expen-ditures and correcting any irregularities. irreg-ularities. The commanding officer offi-cer is Lieutenant Colonel Scth Wiard and the manager of Remington Rem-ington Arms is W. F. H..Mattlage. The tour of the ordnance plant was preceded by a visit to the Fort Douglas reception center, where the future users of the ammunition were being: transformed trans-formed from civilians into soldiers. sold-iers. Under the guidance of Colonel J. J. Graves, commanding command-ing officer of the center, the newspapermen were shown how the new inductees are outfitted, classified for special aptitudes, re-examined for physical defects, immunized against certain diseases, di-seases, Jed 'and entertained. A highlight' of this process was the clothing of the new inductees. They enter one end of a long room in civilian . clothes ' and I emerge at the other end with the ' Kfr-re;e-iUon center issue of the army uniform. The new inductees pass through the outfitting room with production produc-tion line efficiency and speed. But they are treated as individuals individ-uals by the fitters and they don't have to accept ill-fitting items. The U. S. Army wants the soldiers to feel well dre.s.setl, on the theory that .satisfaction with tin: clothe:; promotes .satisfaction with Army life. |