PRODUCTION ENGINEERING MEASURE. MICROMODULES.

This report describes the effort conducted under tasks 36 and 39 of the Extension II Production Engineering Measure phase of the contract. Tasks 36 and 39 provided for the analysis of processes, designs, and production techniques which would be compatible with the implementation of a full-scale pilot production line for micromodule assembly. The objective of Task 36 was to provide a module assembly facility capable of a balanced production rate of 200 modules per 8-hour day, by proceeding, sequentially, through process analysis, facilitation and fabrication of preproduction modules to establish the adequacy of the implemented facility. Task 39 was to demonstrate, through a pilot run phase, the capability of the facilities established during the preproduction phase. Three module sources were selected and facilitated to perform under Tasks 36 and 39. The facilities implemented and demonstrated by each of the three fabricators were considered to have met all task objectives. Each fabricator demonstrated the required minimum production-rate capability of 200 modules per 8-hour shift. The results of the three independent pilot runs confirmed the adequacy of the selected module assembly processes and the implementation choices made by each fabricator. Each vendor produced a pilot run quantity of 1000 micromodules to be used for a 10,000hour reliability test performed on another Army contract.