WRAPPING
UP A BLOB IS HEAVENLY PROJECT
Package wrapping comes in countless formats and takes place for just as
many reasons. The most common need is the endless wrapping for distribution of
our consumer products – the things we eat, wear and use in our daily life.
Other more common wrapping needs are to protect industrial products.
Closer to home base we all perform holiday or anniversary gift wrapping from
time to time. It is easy to understand how we learn the essential steps for
protecting and preserving these items on such a repeating need basis.
On a different scale, a company in Carrollton, Texas goes a bit further
with the art and science of custom protective package wrapping.
Protective Packaging Corporation has been called on many times to handle
diverse but demanding assignments where there isn’t much time for a learning
curve and the job must absolutely be done right the first time.
Some examples:
*Wrapping
missiles for shipment to war zones the world over. * Wrapping full-size railroad
cars for multiple year storage. *Protecting food products for long distance
ocean shipment. * Protecting big US Army trucks for long-term outdoor storage.
Thus, it was no surprise in April when General Dynamics of Kilgore, Texas
called with another extraordinary assignment. GD Kilgore plant had just
completed a very large antenna, nicknamed “The Blob”, that was to become the
first unit in the “Atacama Large Millimeter Array,” or ALMA.
ALMA is an international collaboration committed
to develop a world-class telescope array to study the universe from a
high altitude site in the Andes Mountains. The ultimate location is in Chile’s
Atacama Desert
at 16, 500 feet above sea level were clear, dry weather is the norm and the
overhead atmosphere is clear enough for interference-free high resolution
viewing into the outer reaches of space. The
project is to create a rearrangeable array of up to 64 antennas, working
together as one giant radio telescope. It is expected to provide a resolution
many times higher than the Hubble Telescope and enable viewing new stars and
planets all the way to the far reaches of
the universe as they are born and grow. The
oxygen content at 16,500 feet is so rarefied and uncomfortable for prolonged
human presence that the actual scientists operating the array will be based at
approximately 9,000 feet above sea level.
Jim Hiller, Vice President of Protective Packaging said “Our job was to design and install packaging for the 161,000 lbs unit that would provide protection against moisture and corrosion during transport over the road from Kilgore to Houston, over the water from Houston to Santiago, Chile and over the road again from Santiago to the foothills of the Andes Mountains.
It took us 2 days to package the Blob. This was the first telescope in the array. The first antenna is scheduled for delivery in 2007. There will be a total of 30 - 50 more over the next 4 years shipped to Chile. Construction of ALMA started in 2003 and will be completed in 2012; it will go on line gradually beginning in 2010. The quality location and capability to rearrange the array to suit specific observation targets will make ALMA the best tool in the world of astronomy.
We performed our protective packaging work at the General Dynamics manufacturing facility in Kilgore, Texas. They had the cranes and know how to lift the gigantic, but precise machine without damage. We first installed a fully enveloping moisture barrier bag of a material we call PROPAK 7000 and then covered the device with a reinforced tarp material called Armorlon AT-200. Finally, the protected assembly was placed upon a substantial steel “lifting frame” by the manufacturer’s rigging dept. We are completely confident (as in a100% guarantee) the wrapping process will ensure corrosion-proof arrival at the site.”
The End
PROPAK 7000 approximately
8.7 mils overall thick, dual-layer material (reflective/clear). Clear barrier
layer/foil.
Armorlon®
AT-200
is a PVC coated polyester scrim product. Scrim is 1000 x 1300 denier. The
material is weather resistant with a high tensile strength. 25.0 mils thick and
a weight of 125 lbs per 1,000 sq/ft. Armorlon® is a division of Reef Industries, Inc.
Millimeter and submillimeter-wave astronomy is the study of the universe in the spectral region between what is traditionally considered radio waves and infrared radiation. In this realm, ALMA will study the structure of the early universe and the evolution of galaxies; gather crucial data on the formation of stars and planets; and provide new insights on our own solar system.
The
Atacama Large Millimeter Array, or ALMA, is an international collaboration
between Europe, Japan and North America in cooperation with the Republic of
Chile
to develop a world-class telescope array to study the universe from a site in
the foothills of Chile's Andes Mountains. Each of ALMA's antenna dishes will
measure 12 m wide. The ALMA antennas will be movable. At its largest, the array
will measure 14 km, and at its smallest, only 150 m. Its receivers will cover
the range from 30 to 950 GHz. The ALMA correlator, a specialized computer that
combines the information received by the antennas, will perform an astounding
16,000 million-million (1.6x1016) operations per second. An
additional, compact array of 7-m and 12-m antennas is also foreseen. ESO
( the intergovernmental European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the
Southern Hemisphere) has signed a contract with Scheuerle Fahrzeugfabrik GmbH, a
world-leader in the design and production of custom-built heavy-duty
transporters, for the provision of two antenna transporting vehicles.
These special transporters will carry each antenna from the operations
center at 9,000 ft to the 16,500 ft viewing level.
The transporters will also be used to rearrange the antenna array.
Story contacts:
Richard Henley
Writer & Submitter
Tel (901)324-2821
Jim Hiller
Sr. Vice President
Protective Packaging Corporation
jhiller@protectivepackaging.net
Tel 1.800.945.2247
http://www.protectivepackaging.net