AWE MAMs - IES Lean Systems

The Task

This was a £10m project for the MoD which was a Multi-Axis Machine, a modified version of standard Chiron Mill 1250 to make the system compliant with the requirements of the AWE High Explosive Fabrication Facility. The project was not originally an IES Lean Systems project in but instead IES Lean Systems were required to turn around a failing project and were called upon based on the technical and management experience from other contractors. The project was in such need of recovery the respective contract was on course to be completely scrapped by the MoD altogether. We had to very quickly assess the requirements for such a specialist machine and assembled a team and plan to turn the project around. Client communication, planning and complete day to day management and clear decision making were required throughout the process.

During a period of 4-5 months, we managed to make key and influential design and managerial decisions to the point where the machine was operational and tested to the client’s test specification. Many design constraints had to be overcome whereby new technology was specified and solutions produced by myself to meet the client’s requirements.

The Challenge

There were many significant challenges surrounding this contract. There was the sensitive nature of the project being MoD so many security and clearance hurdles to overcome. There was very little history of the machine, having gone through many contractors. There was an extremely aggressive schedule that had to be met and we had to build quick relationships with existing contractors and contractors that were soon to be removed the project. In addition to the technical requirements to have a machine perform its operations with a high explosion facility.

The Strategy

The strategy was to assess the exhaustive client requirements very quickly and in parallel baseline the design for the Multi-Axis Machine Centre system which was controlled by the Siemens Sinumerik 840DSL Based CNC system. In addition, we had to put together a deliverable schedule and resource the vast amount of work to bring the schedule back in line with the client’s requirements. Many hours were exhausted via double/triple shifting and assembling a team of newly recruited/assessed experts to the IES team.

The client requirements detailed exactly what technical and performance deliverables were for the modified machine and we had use these documents in order to begin building a quality plan, reserve engineer a functional design specification and being to build a design while still baselining the design of the current machine.

Once we were able to put together, a team, a resource schedule, a plan and a design to meet both the project, client and safety requirements for such a specialist machine. We could then begin the full scope retrofit, including cabling and electrical connections, develop CNC software, replace faulty, obsolete items all within a challenging timeframe so the approach was to spend extra time and care to confirm the existing installation was as per the design and to carefully mirror the existing design into a new installation. Once proven tested the next challenge was to commission one machine within the facility while then relaying the modifications into a second machine which was taken directly from another contractor to mirror the changes made to allow the machine to operate.

The Design and Implementation Teams

The originally supplied Chiron Mill 1250, modified to make the system compliant with the requirements of the AWE High Explosive Fabrication Facility had many unique and original concept design features such as ATEX components, unique SIS system, LCS/RCS interface, modified tool handling system and swarf and dust extract system. There were many unique and complex ancillaries interfaces which required to work seamlessly within this explosive atmosphere and product apart with high precision tolerances.

IES provided original concept hardware/software design solutions to meet these demanding and unique client requirements, providing project management and supervision of mechanical and electrical contractors on-site during the installation phase.

Significant amounts of design documentation needed to be produced, some of which are listed but not limited to:

Equipment GA Drawings, Cross-sectional drawings, electrical and single-line schematics, hook up details P&ID line lists, utilises schedule, cable schedules, functional and software design specifications, control and trip architecture drawings, bill of materials, Factory and Site Acceptance Test Documents. Operation and Maintenance manuals.

The Outcome

The project was eventually saved and completed successfully within the planned time frame. A major contributor to the success of the project was a careful approach to management and communication with multiple design teams and investing time to carefully managing configuration control.

Did You Know?

Very early milling machines were developed in the eighteenth century to make wooden gear wheels for clocks, but the association between milling and weaponry goes back a long way. In the early nineteenth century, Elisha K. Root, working at the Colt firearms factory in Connecticut, improved the milling machine then in use there. The improved tool was known as the Lincoln Miller. The Colt Model 1855 Sidehammer Pocket Revolver, or Colt Root Revolver, was named in honour of Elisha K. Root – possibly the only handgun to be named after a milling machine engineer.

AWE, the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, was established in 1950 and originally formed part of the British Ministry of Defence, but passed into private management in 1993. AWE now works under contract to the Ministry of Defence through a government-owned-contractor-operated arrangement (GOCO). Its function is to help the United Kingdom maintain a credible and effective minimum nuclear deterrent.

Modern multi-axis milling machines can achieve astonishing feats of intricacy. A Japanese advertising agency, working for Suntory Whisky, used a CNC (computer numerical control) milling machine to carve ice cubes into shapes such as the Statue of Liberty and a rearing horse – all of a size small enough to fit into a whiskey glass. The CNC milling machine operated at a temperature of -7 degrees Celsius to prevent the ice from melting; the ice sculptures took up to 6 hours each to make.