Pearl Harbor Shipyard Workers Test Corrosion Prototypes

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS120503-20
5/3/2012

From Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard Public Affairs

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (NNS) -- Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility tested prototypes of new equipment under actual work conditions during the first Submarine Corrosion Control Applied Innovation Challenge, April 16-20.

The initiative featured products from four companies in the areas of ballast tank communications, personal protective equipment cooling and work area lighting.

Shipyard employees tested the equipment aboard a submarine in dry dock and in the sandblasting facility. Their evaluation comments will be used by the companies to further refine their equipment designs to meet worker needs, according to Dr. James Fabunmi of AHDC, the company hired by NAVSEA to coordinate the initiative.

"It's a way to get the technology with less guesswork," Fabunmi said. "[The contest is] engaging the end user while competing who has the best ideas as expressed in the form of prototypes. If the prototypes aren't good enough, it's determining what needs to be improved."

"I think it's a good idea," said Sandblaster Jesse Kruse, one of the workers who evaluated the products. "As technology gets better, we can do the job quicker, faster, more efficiently and safely."

PHNSY & IMF is a field activity of the Naval Sea Systems Command and a full-service naval shipyard and regional maintenance center for the Navy's surface ships and submarines. It is the largest industrial employer in the state of Hawaii with a combined civilian and military workforce of about 4,850 and an economic impact of $925 million.