Kit redesign prevents parts damage

  • Published
  • By Jeanne Grimes
  • Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center Public Affairs
Spare parts onboard E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system aircraft will no longer be bubble-wrapped parcels rattling around inside unpadded containers.

Instead, each critical part of a spares package will be nestled into customized niches cut into polyethelene foam, said Airman 1st Class Shawn Henry. The improved kits are the result of weeks of consultation between the logistics management directorate’s packaging management section and 552nd Air Control Wing officials.

“Certain AWACS items were being damaged on deployment,” said T.C. Jones, a packaging specialist.

Each four-container kit includes about $1 million worth of high-tech spare parts, he said.

“Before, the parts were just bubble wrapped,” Henry said. “But the bubbles would get smashed.”

But that was not the only problem, according to 2nd Lt. Earl Elam, officer in charge of supply for the 552nd Maintenance Operations Squadron.

Sometimes there was water damage since condensation is a common occurrence at high altitude. And depending where in the world the planes were landing and taking off, sand had a way of working into boxes and packages, no matter how tightly they were wrapped or fastened, he said.

Jones said it was not simply a matter of padding the parts more.

Because space is at a premium on the aircraft, the new packaging had to fit inside existing containers.

“It was like a puzzle,” Jones said of fitting 31 replacement parts into the containers. “(But) the biggest challenge was figuring if we could get the items cushioned enough in the limited space we had.”

Workers made the first prototype with polyurethane foam, which proved too flexible. The polyethelene foam, however, is more rigid, but still has cushioning properties.