Chemical and Metallurgical Lab supports wide variety of functions at AEDC Published June 14, 2012 By Patrick Ary AEDC/PA ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. -- It's fitting that a facility that deals in elements plays such an elemental role in what goes on at AEDC. Almost every worker at AEDC depends on the Chemical and Metallurgical Lab at one point or another as they perform their duties. The lab's chemists and metallurgical experts help keep facility tests running and on schedule, keep workers safe and even help solve the occasional mystery through their experience and state-of-the-art equipment that's a far cry from bubbling beakers and Bunsen burners. "That is not the modern chemistry lab," said Bill Lock, ATA chemistry lab technical director. "The modern analytical chemistry lab now is robotics, autosamplers and computers." A major function of the Chem Lab is supporting turbine engine testing. When a test is underway, an oil sample is sent to the lab for analysis. Workers analyze the sample, looking for 15 different metals. Usually within an hour, engineers back at the test cell receive a complete analysis. Once the test is complete, another oil sample is analyzed. Engineers can then use the data to see if there are any increased levels that could indicate an issue inside the engine that doesn't show up to the naked eye. The Chem Lab also analyzes fuel samples. When tankers bring JP-8 fuel to the base, samples are taken and analyzed once fuel is loaded into the fuel farm's tanks, right before it goes into an engine for testing and once a test is complete. "They're looking for any slight variations in the BTU content, the heating value, the densities and viscosities of the fuel," Lock said. "Those will go into their power calculations." ATA turbines test operations section manager Mark Bymaster said AEDC engineers and the customers who come to AEDC for work depend on the lab's analyses to ensure the fuel they're putting into an engine has a uniform makeup that won't impact test results. The data received is also critical to spotting problems early and heading off what could eventually become a serious and costly failure in an engine. "I kind of relate it to going to the doctor and getting your blood taken," Bymaster said. "They do that complete workup, and you get a little more visibility into what's going on inside you versus just looking at the outside. That's what we're really looking for - early indicators." And Bymaster said the work is well done. "They exhibit a lot of flexibility," he said. "We call those guys all hours of the day and night, and usually if they're not here somebody's coming in on the weekend or at night if we have a problem. They're very accommodating, and the quality of their work is very high. Customers have really come to rely on the Chem Lab and the results they produce." Outside of test-related functions, the Chem Lab also has a close relationship with AEDC's industrial hygienists. The lab helps hygienists determine if workers have been exposed to hazardous materials in the workplace. "The Industrial Hygiene section here will put personal sampling pumps on workers, like a painter, to make sure he's not being overexposed to solvents in the paint or paint thinners; or put a pump on a welder to make sure he's not being overexposed to metals coming off the welding process," Lock said. "They then take the samples that they collect from workers, bring them here and we analyze them." This aspect of what the Chem Lab does is one of its standout characteristics, because it is one of only three Air Force bases in the world that is accredited by the American Industrial Hygiene Association. Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, and Kadena AFB, Japan, are the other two. The accreditation allows the Chem Lab to monitor for worker exposure instead of sending samples off-base - which can be critical when it comes not only to worker health, but also delays to customer testing. "The good part about that is if there are some workers in a test cell, for instance, and they're doing a repair and come across a gasket and someone thinks it might be asbestos, they can send it over here and literally within minutes have an answer as to what it is," Lock said. "If they had to send that off, you have to figure at least a day to two days for transportation and another day or two for analysis. That could stop work." Environmental work is also a large part of what's done in the Chem Lab. Analysts conduct tests to ensure that AEDC is in compliance with Environmental Protection Agency and state regulations for drinking water and for wastewater that goes off base. They also monitor contaminants in the groundwater that are being cleaned up through an ongoing Installation Restoration Program. And then there's the detective work - the part of the job Lock says is the most fun. "It's the unknowns and unusual samples that really challenge them and really show off our capabilities," Lock said. The detective work begins when there's a situation such as a worker in a test cell pulling a grease or an oil out of a component that can't be identified, possibly due to the amount of time that has passed. It could be someone who suspects the wrong grease or oil was inserted during the lubrication process. It could be a puddle of mysterious liquid on the floor of a test cell. That's when a sample shows up at the Chem Lab in a bottle, smeared on a rag or on the end of a filter with an engineer asking "What is it?" "That's when the fun begins," Lock said. "Those are the kind of samples that make it challenging to get the answers back to them, so they can decide if it's something they need to be concerned about." The fun comes in all forms - like the time a janitor sprayed what he thought was Formula 409 cleaner and realized the liquid in the bottle was not the cleaner. A sample of the liquid was rushed to the lab for analysis, where they determined that someone had replaced the 409 with some liquid hand soap and water. "We get some good stuff here sometimes," Lock laughed. And looking back, that may have been a humorous situation, but on a serious note, the ability to get instant results meant there was no stoppage in work or added costs incurred by sending a sample outside the center for testing. With the capability to support so many different areas at AEDC, it may come as a surprise to learn that only eight people work in the Chem Lab. Advancements in technology throughout the years have streamlined the workload, so fewer people are doing more work and getting it done faster. "One chemist now can operate many different instruments at the same time because of the automation, so that allows us to be more flexible and have more capabilities with fewer people," Lock said. On the metallurgical side of work done at the lab, four Non Destructive Testing inspectors spend their days making sure the infrastructure of AEDC's facilities is safe and work is being done properly. ATA Labs Section Manager Steve Ary said inspectors primarily focus on inspecting the welds in fabrications, but they also inspect plant equipment and incoming raw materials or fabricated parts. Inspectors are also in charge of conducting in service inspections for the Pressure and Hazardous Material Systems program. That work involves checking welds, pipe supports and insulation. The inspections are documented and then any deficiencies or required preventive maintenance is performed. Inspectors have a wide variety of tools at their disposal for inspections, but they rely on one above all others. "Mainly, it's eyeballs," Ary said. "That's the most important one we have." Workers use their eyes when checking welds on site and are familiar with the proper welding procedures and materials. To do the job, they have to know their metals. "We have about 150 active welding procedures right now," Ary said. "You have different materials, for one thing. Then you have different welding processes - we pretty much use three. And then, of course, you have different base metals, different filler metals, and you use different standards for structural, piping and pressure vessels. Those are all different." In addition to having the experience to spot cracks or welding deficiencies, workers do have tools to find problems not visible to the naked eye. There are magnetic particle suspensions and liquid penetrants that can highlight the smallest cracks in materials when viewed under special light. "I can show you parts where you would swear they didn't have anything in them," Ary said, "And you look at them under a black light and they're cracked all to pieces." Radiography is also used to inspect piping and pressure systems. The Met Lab has several systems of varying sizes for standard mechanical testing and microscopic examinations, but the bulk of the work is electron microscopy. The lab's electron microscope is capable of 150,000 times magnification, which Ary said is much more than the practical limits in material science require. "You can look at fracture surfaces and find microfeatures that give clues to the mode of failure - if it's a fatigue failure, a brittle buckle, or if there were pre-existing cracks, sometimes you can tell that," he said. The microscope's digital signal processor forms an image through use of an electron beam, but it also has an auxiliary X-ray fluorescence detector. That means it can pick up the characteristics of a particular electron structure of that element, and the computer can determine what sort of material is being examined. "That's real handy for a couple of things," Ary said. "One is I can go out to a piece of equipment and scrape just a few shavings off it and get a pretty good idea of what the material is without any harm to the part. It's also very useful for identifying mystery things that we find in various compressors, pumps, pipes and that sort of thing." Then there's the paperwork. The Met/NDE Lab provides documentation for all inspections, conducts qualification testing for welders and keeps track of their certifications. They also review subcontractor work to ensure that it's up to the standards of AEDC. It all adds up to a facility that is the backbone for much of the work that goes on at AEDC, and the experience and tools make it a successful one according to Walt Bishop, ATA's Test Support Branch manager. "Their combination of skill, experience and testing methods make AEDC's Chem and Metallurgical Labs a very valuable resource for the continued operation of AEDC," Bishop said. Vince Chapman, the AEDC Support Asset Branch's project manager for shops and laboratories, also said the functions provided by both the chemical and metallurgical sides of the lab are important to a wide range of base functions. "The depth of knowledge in these areas is exemplary," Chapman said. "They are true professionals in every sense of the word."