PMEL masters of time, space

Published Dec. 2, 2009
By Senior Airman Michael Matkin
379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFNS) -- Why would anyone be concerned about five millionths of a second?

For Airmen in the 379th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron precision measurement equipment laboratory, it could mean the difference between mission success and mission failure. By calibrating and repairing measurement and diagnostic equipment, the shop's mission is to provide customers with reliable, safe and accurate equipment that meets or exceeds expectations.

The PMEL troops support more than 15,700 different types of equipment such as spectrum analyzers, torque wrenches and pressure gauges by thoroughly fine-tuning them to meet the four criteria of accuracy, reliability, traceability and safety, said Master Sgt. Patrick Nutt, 379th EMXS PMEL flight chief, deployed from Langley Air Force Base, Va.

The 379th EMXS PMEL is the only such shop in the Air Forces Central Command area of responsibility. PMEL Airmen not only calibrate the equipment used here on base, but throughout the AOR including joint and coalition equipment as well, Sergeant Nutt said. This is the reason they receive, on average, approximately 50 items a day, which adds up to more than 1,500 maintenance actions per month. With a crew of only 20 technicians, they must work 24/7 to keep up with the demand.

Adding to their already monumental task of supporting the entire AOR, the PMEL Airmen have a goal to turn equipment within two days, said Tech. Sgt. Kevin Stewart, 379th EMXS PMEL shift supervisor, deployed from McGuire AFB, N.J. This is five days quicker than the seven-day Air Force standard; however, the Airmen in the 379th EMXS PMEL shop do this because they know warfighters throughout the AOR are depending on that equipment to get the mission accomplished.

"We are providing next day turn-around, which is amazing for such a small shop in a deployed environment," Sergeant Nutt said.

The PMEL Airmen here also have sustained an equipment availability rate of 96 percent, which means 15,072 of the 15,700 items that they are responsible for maintaining are available for use, Sergeant Nutt said. Again, they are going above and beyond as the Air Force standard is 94 percent availability.

The types of calibrations they perform typically fall into two categories, which is how their shop is subdivided, Sergeant Stewart said.

The first category involves electrical standards, which deals with voltage, current and resistance-type measurements or the wave-form generation and analysis section, Sergeant Nutt said. Here they test oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, power meters, signal generators and similar equipment. Basically, anything that creates or measures a sine wave is calibrated and maintained in this section. Equipment used to test munitions typically falls into this category, as well.

The second category deals with the physical dimensional sciences, including pressure, torque, tension, weight, optics and temperature. This is the section of PMEL most people are familiar with and that provides their heaviest workload, which is adjusting torque wrenches and pressure gauges, Sergeant Stewart said.

Some of the equipment they handle is so sensitive that the adjustments must be done in temperature-controlled environments, Sergeant Nutt said. Controlling the climate in their shop can be especially challenging during the summer months when the humidity and temperatures reach extremes. The humidity can also have adverse effects on the shop's instrumentation and tools. To combat this, their building is currently being rebuilt and refurbished to include a temperature-controlled clean room within the building.

"Having this room is important because we have to keep the level of humidity high enough to prevent static electricity discharge and low enough to prevent corrosion, plus it will help keep out all of the dust, which is another large problem here," Sergeant Stewart said.

Making sure all of the equipment they are responsible for is working exactly as it is designed to can be especially important for mission success.

"Calibrating a weapon system properly can be the difference between hitting a target and not hitting it at all," Sergeant Stewart said.

"If we don't do our job, they can't do their job, it's just that simple," Sergeant Nutt said.

The equipment they calibrate also is essential to mission safety. For example, technicians calibrate the equipment used to gauge aircraft tire pressure, Sergeant Nutt said.

"When thousands of pounds are landing on those tires, an inaccurate measurement could cause a major problem," he said.

Also, to ensure equipment is up to standards, the 379 EMXS PMEL has its own quality assurance team, Sergeant Nutt said. These highly-trained members are selected from within the lab and are responsible for ensuring the items certified by PMEL technicians are safe, accurate, reliable and traceable.

"Traceability ensures that measurements made at any Air Force PMEL can be duplicated at any other PMEL throughout the world," Sergeant Nutt said.

The PMEL QA team also monitors the laboratory environment to include lighting, cleanliness, positive airflow, temperature and humidity.

Having an in-house QA team is important because making sure the PMEL specialists provide perfectly working equipment to those who need them is how they contribute to the fight and mission success, calibrating and repairing equipment, ensuring that they are not even five millionths of a second off.

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