Posted on 09/21/2016 11:29:02 PM PDT by Oztrich Boy
Weird new warship USS Zumwalt has broken down while on sea trials, three weeks ahead of her formal commissioning ceremony.
The futuristic $4.4bn vessel, which features a so-called “tumblehome” hull, suffered a seawater leak into the auxiliary lube oil system for one of her main propeller shafts, according to USNI News.
(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.co.uk ...
That is an interesting take.
I am employed by a government contractor, I have served active, I have worked for General Dynamics. I know all to we’ll how difficult it is to meet the milspec and build a quality product. I also know that when my product fails in the field, someone has a very bad day. That is nothing to joke about.
The world produces a lot of stuff that has been produced a long time - very few of those manufacturing processes are 100% defect free. Processes that produce fewer parts in a given time span (such as ships, MRIs, CTs, etc) actually have a higher defect rate than those that produce a greater number of parts.
The highest end automated electronic manufacturing lines run around .01-.3% defect rates. Most manufacturing processes that are not automated and have a human component to them run at a 3-sigma first pass yield which means ~94.5% are good first time off the line and the remaining 5.5% are not.
That doesn’t include issues that are design related for which the manufacturing process is being used as a sorting process - such as one example from my past when it was far cheaper (Millions/year) to use manufacturing tests in order to sort capacitors to determine which will work in an RF tuned circuit then it was to buy capacitors pre-sorted to a very tight tolerance.
How many houses has mankind built? How many still have details that require fixing prior to being turned-over upon first sale? My point in all this is that there is no such thing as perfection when producing a product - we can strive for it, there are whole industries about how to do it better, but perfection is achieved only by God. The greater number of opportunities in a complex piece of equipment the more likely the probability that something will need corrected. In fact every ship running through final trials comes back to port with a list of things that are either mandated to be fixed prior to final turnover or nice to haves.
Ever worked on two different VINs for the same model of car? Ever notice how one is just a little different from the other? That’s not just personality - though it lends itself to our treating each one differently - it’s variance in the manufacturing process.
Yes, we’ve been doing it for more than 150 years. Doesn’t mean we’ve eliminated manufacturing variance or perfected mankind. I could go on this topic for hours it’s what I do, but I’m already sounding preachy based on what I’ve already written.
And the difference: when your Toyota stops, get out and open the hood ...
Well Sir ... I appreciate the sermon. But while the whole of your words are indeed true, I was not addressing the bazillions of new whiz-bank technology components of this new boat. These will in fact have years of growing pains and expensive ones at that. I addressed what I believed to be a single part of the whole, a relatively mature technology, that being the ability to keep water out of a hole that is intentionally punched through a hull. One would think that in 150 years or so ‘they’ would have found an optimum solution that can produce a secure, safe and dry fit for a propeller shaft.
Your tome suggests that I expect too much. Of course we must keep in mind that it is probable that the technology used was provided by the lowest bidder.
That would explain a lot ...
They’ll probably put the power plant & rail gun into a stretched Burke-hull and call it a cruiser. It’s an existing structure with, by then, proven propulsion, power & weps. The Burke is the most-produced destroyer in USN history.
Clemsons built: 156
Fletchers built: 175
HAHAHA!
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