,

Company:
AR Tech, Div. of A&R Tarpaulins Inc. Fontana, CA

Project Details

Fabric 1

OTHER
Producer: OTHER
Supplier: OTHER


Engineer Name 1
Paul Heger

Engineer Company 1
Northrop Grumman

Design Name
Paul Heger

Design Company
Northrop Grumman

Architect Name
N/A

Architect Company
N/A

Fabrication Name
Dermidio Gonzalez

Fabrication Company
AR Tech

Subcontractor Company
AR Tech

Graphics Name
Dermidio Gonzalez

Graphics Company
AR Tech

Project Manager Name
Jessica Foley

Project Manager Company
AR Tech

Installation Company
Northrop Grumman


Please describe the project specifications

The contamination covers for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) were produced through a contract awarded from Northrop Grumman. The JWST is set to launch in the year 2021 and will be NASA’s premier observatory that will be serving thousands of astronomers worldwide to help study every phase in the history of the Universe. With the importance of this telescope’s mission, these contamination covers are crucial to a successful launch. There are two contamination covers, one inner and one outer, which both cover 13,049 cubic feet each and are used to protect the JWST from outside contaminates which will help during various tests prior to launch.


What was the purpose of this project? What did the client request?

Contamination covers are necessary while doing various tests on sensitive materials so the object inside and the people outside do not get harmed. The inner bag is made of an electrostatic film that helps prevent the object from being harmed by static electricity. Meanwhile, the outer bag is made of a transparent-aero packaging which helps provide water proofing and serves the purpose of being a layer of protection for the inner layer.


What is unique or complex about the project?

For this project, a dedicated class 8 clean room was erected in-house featuring HEPA filtration. Our quality assurance engineer was trained by the Northrop Grumman Corporation Aerospace contamination team in the area of sample cleaning using NVR and tape sample methods.


What were the results of the project?

The overall project took about a year from being awarded to completion and all deliveries to Northrop Grumman were made on time. With the customer’s expectations of the finals results being exceeded, this resulted in the award of additional sets of contamination covers.


Content is submitted by the participant. IFAI is not responsible for the content descriptions of the IAA award winners.