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somebody asked about the tanks being in Alaska. Yes there were at least two of them up there. They were being tested for extreme cold weather usage and also doing some testing with the thermo imaging gun sight. They were camoed in a two tone charcoal grey and white (maybe a brown), and we had two large photos of them hanging on the wall at work.
Isreal was very interested in buying the diesel powered M1 tank (before the Merkava). We had them in for a visit before production had started, and they actually drove the diesel tank somewhere.
The gas turbine was built by Avco (a division of Lycoming), and they came very close to loosing the contract to supply them. We were testing two other power packs that use gas turbines from Allison and Garrett. They went thru the 25,000 hour tests and calibration without a hitch. These were installed and tested at Warren Park for sure and maybe elsewhere. Then there was also a parallel development of the X1100-5 that was to use a diesel engine with similar horse power. This one is close but not exactly the same as the older transmission that was used in the diesel engine prototype. All three versions are very similar except for the step down internal gearing. Selection of the prototypes was about 75% political.
With the exception of two test cells, every M1 tank gear box is tested via a V16 diesel engine. There is a third test cell that also uses a v16 diesel engine, but from Cummins. This test cell are used for destructive testing, and can be brutal. The other two use gas turbines, and just do the 25K hour tests. All production tests are via a Detroit V16 diesel engine flowing thru a Cotta step up gear box into the X1100 transmission. All slippage is measured via a multi encoder setup that reads down to one ten thousandth of an inch. None fail! (whether diesel or turbine) I might add that it's a rare thing for a gear box to fail the seven hour test, but have seen about a half dozen over the years. I did see one do a complete self destruct due to a bad valve body casting.
The X1100 gear box ( no matter what power plant) was a true maggot box. Was a TACOM design, and just wouldn't work. Prototypes were built in the tool room in Speedway, and they usually failed in less than 500 hours! (17 of them in the first batch). Tacom did a redesign of the hydro static assembly and it failed. They did a third redesign with the same results. We told them it wouldn't work, but they are also rather hard headed. Bought about fifty transmissions at over a half million a piece (tool room work is costly). Finally they asked us to fix it, and we did. (that's why Allison holds all the patents on the hydrostatic drive). Suspect the prototypes tested used the maggot box instead of the true production models. The production models were not built till 1980! Another reason I said politics as there were no production versions out there due to the lack of four or five pieces of machinery in Plant 14 (Apex broach being number one issue)
glt
There were three trips to Alaska (Ft. Greely) during Op Test 2. We tested with two tanks, PV-4 and PV-13. Thermal imaging resolution, mobility and ballistic confirmation of fire control software in sub zero conditions as well. Cold weather start up, hydraulic system performance (cold weather) etc.
We worked very closely with Les Churney from Detroit Diesel Allison and the X100B transmission development. By 1977, the PV tanks had the Avco Lycoming AGT 1500 Turbine and the X1100B transmission. The air intake filtration was our main issue at the start of Op Test 1. Total redesign of the main filters was required. The transmission recorded virtually no major failures during the three operational tests that I was a part of. I only recall using the go home button one time, due to a valve body solenoid failure.
The first production tanks (110) vehicles are behind us in the picture I posted...Chrysler Defense, spring 1981
It's been a long, long time since I saw those two big pictures on the wall, but it seems that they had some kind of armored CAV logo painted on the front and back. One was buried in a snow bank.
The Army guys came in for a visit, and brought in those two framed pics, and they ended up on the wall in engineering on the second floor of plant 14. During that same visit they also brought in one of the thermo gun sights for us to have a look thru. I well remember seeing foot tracks going across the concrete floor! But what got me was that you could tell a man from a women due to different hot spots!
Just about that time we were finally getting everything up to speed, and maybe building 20 transmissions a month (the X1100 is a very labor intensive gear box, and the TACOM bunch tends to create a quagmire themselves). I well remember that everything was done except for the hard chrome platting area. After the dog & pony show they had a meeting with us, TACOM, and supervision telling us what they needed, and asking us to help. In about ten days the platting room was up and running when we all put out heads together. Engineering told Tacom it would be six weeks to two months. Six months later TACOM came in and told us to do an engineering study for a 150 transmission output per month (we were setup for 100 units a month max), and that was a massive retool everywhere. Lots of new machines, that in the were never used to the full extent. Due to TACOM's design specs, gear development was a seven day a week task, and subject to near constant retooling (their specs were beyond aircraft quality). There just wasn't anything good enough out there in the early 1980's. Along about 1987 we found a new machine made in Germany that finally put us over the hump. The main case was a bear to machine, and pretty much had a solid three days of machine time in it. There were a lot of heated discussions over this and a lot of wasted money spent on it. In the end, we had it right in the first place. One major glitch was the finish deburr and clean up operation. It took seven and a half hours to do one case! I was tasked to build a robotic cell to do 70% of this operation. It was a 300% increase in out put, but added over 300% more labor! That was (and still is) the largest robotic cell ever made, plus it has the longest cycle time ever taught to one. Took over a year to build.
I left there in 1994, and thought I was finally done with that mill stone. But I ended up being tasked with retooling and developing and building all the lifting devices for that program. Was constantly retooling a dyno for them. Just couldn't get away from it. Also did the AAAV, X200, XTG411 series, and a series of still borne developments like the AFAX, and the hybrid electric SPG series.
Interestingly, I developed a friendship with the machine maintenance guys over at Lima, but only knew one guy out of Warren Park (class A idiot). I've been inside Lima two or three times, but never stepped foot in Warren Park! I've been out front of the place many times on the way to Warren Tech Center. Had TACOM used all the brain trust at Warren Tech to design and build that gear box, I'm certain they could have removed 33% from the total cost involved. These guys were as sharp as I've ever seen, and were years ahead of the game. Yet they often came down to confer on projects they had in mind. They were the guys that taught us the art of robotics when it was a "black art".
gary
