USS Jimmy Carter (the "F/A-22" of submarines)

Concerning your statement about water jet cutters. Yes they do have them in this shipyard. The last Time I knew of them being extensively used was in the deactivation of the USS Nathaniel Green SSBN 636. The USS Nathaniel Green had hit a underwater mountain and dagged the hull to the tune of some extensive damage. It was decided to go ahead and scrap her early.
These boats are brought into dry dock and the missle tube sections cut out of them in accordance with treaty obligations. When the missle tube sections are cut out the for and aft sections are dragged together and welded to form a complete hull.
During this cut up proceedure there were so many fires started using torches that a jet water cutting device was used instead and this solved the problem of the fires. Amazing to me what they can do with this high tech stuff now days. Who would have ever thought 40 years ago that water technology could be used so effectively.
To my knowlege the joined sections of the hull were towed off and eventually they too were cut up and scrapped.

Thanks,
Orangetom

Originally posted by M6D
by the way guys, my earlier comment was a joke for anyone who did not understand! sorry, for any confusion.

Oh.......***feels like an idiot***

Originally posted by warpboost
I really wonder how they can tap into fiber optic cables without disrupting the signal and letting it be known that they are tapping in??? Do they actively tap the cable to grab the data, but do it so quickly that it only corrupts a minute amount of data or do they use some type of xray like technology to passively look into the cable and grab the signal by just watching

So no one even wants to speculate

Originally posted by devilwasp

Originally posted by M6D
they HATED the sub that much?!

Lol no its a book...

wat mutiny? wat book? are u talking about the U.S.S. Shark mutiny written by Patrick Robinson? there was no mutiny on the Seawolf, however it was destroyed by the Americans to prevent its technology falling into Chinese hands.

If you knew how to tap into fiber optic cable and not loose the signal or data..you would either have a very good paying job and not have time to post on this board.....or you would have a place down in Gitmo..with the Mujahadeen/insurgents. Take your pick. I think you get the point. I am sure that tapping into such cables is a very highly compartmented company/State secret. You dont go around certain sites breaking in and leaving little pee pee tracks when you go there. Lots of compartmented sites that can be accessed from the web..but these sites are controlled entry. Same with the cables.

Think about it.
Thanks,
Orangetom

Originally posted by deltaboy
wat mutiny? wat book? are u talking about the U.S.S. Shark mutiny written by Patrick Robinson? there was no mutiny on the Seawolf, however it was destroyed by the Americans to prevent its technology falling into Chinese hands.

....Smart ass....

Originally posted by orangetom1999
Actually ..no the laminar drill is not a water cutter..it is a hydraulically powered magnetic base drill in various sizes. It uses standard tool steel drill bits though some special drills and cutters can fit into it.

I'd assumed because it was named after a flow phenomenon that a fluid was used for the cutting. And I know of only one such gizmo. Sounds like a lot of torque. Some sort of hydraulic motor I assume? Who makes it? What do you use it for?

As to the specifics of your questions. Yes I read the questions. No I am afraid I cannot go into details on it. Hence the lack of reply in this arena.

No biggies.

orangetom1999

wrt Waterjet cutting. From what I've heard, they give a very fine finish, with very little loss of material. They can also cut many types of both thick and thin materials. Basically a laser beam made of water. CNC controlled. I'd wanted to play with one as soon as I'd heard about them. But my career hasn't taken me in that direction as yet.

Originally posted by LemonAide
wrt Waterjet cutting. From what I've heard, they give a very fine finish, with very little loss of material.

Its basically a high speed jet of water that has an abrasive medium suspended in it. wears its way through and leaves a fine finish on the cut line. Don't you guys watch 'American Chopper"?? They use the machine to cut parts for thier bikes.

The benifit (Having done some machine work when I taught auto shop) is that the water keeps the surface cool so that you do not get heat warping of the material. Plus with the computer running it, you get perfect cuts each time.

I would think instead of penetrating the cable it would use some type of inductive property recording, but I'm just guessing.

Originally posted by Schaden
I would think instead of penetrating the cable it would use some type of inductive property recording, but I'm just guessing.

Well the IvyBell project did indeed use induction to tab Soviet cables in two locations. But im not sure how you tap a fibre optic cable. If they have figured that one out then . When the soviets lifed one out of the water it said "property of the US government" .

It is certainly not easy. "theoretically" if you bend a fiber optic cable sufficiently (small
radius of turn) then there will be a little bit of leakage of light outside of the core
(evanescent wave). You might also scrape a little bit off too. With a very well made optical coupler (inducing no back-reflections) and an Erbium-doped fiber amplifier (standard fiber optic amplification technology) it's conceivably possible to get some signal out. The signal to noise might be very poor.

The normal cable user will probably notice a degradation in performance, enhanced attenuation or some other problems, like a change in polarization due to the physical stress, that could be noticed by monitoring equipment. The question is whether this would be different from ambient variability.

On the other hand, a commercial fiber owner of deep cables isn't going to care. So what if the NSA is tapping them. Are they going to give up using the cable that makes them money, and which cost buttloads to lay? No. They will close their eyes and say "not my problem". They don't want to know: it only gives them economic losses and exposure to legal liability.

Fiber optics use light and not electrical pulses so there is no EM field right? The EM field is what allows induction to work right? My guess is that they use some type of xray like technolgy to see the light pulses and record them

[edit on 9-8-2005 by warpboost]

Originally posted by FredT
Its basically a high speed jet of water that has an abrasive medium suspended in it. wears its way through and leaves a fine finish on the cut line. Don't you guys watch 'American Chopper"?? They use the machine to cut parts for thier bikes.

There's two types. For thinner/softer material there's no abrasive involved. Just water at near hypersonic speed. Seeing it on American Chopper (web bike wasn't it?) isn't working with it first hand.

The benifit (Having done some machine work when I taught auto shop) is that the water keeps the surface cool so that you do not get heat warping of the

Good point. Forgot about the cooling.

Originally posted by LemonAide
There's two types. For thinner/softer material there's no abrasive involved. Just water at near hypersonic speed. Seeing it on American Chopper (web bike wasn't it?) isn't working with it first hand.

I know but it was the best example I could find to point out how the machine works. It is amazing to watch a CNC machine or waterjet at work.

The Laminar drills we use have the name Laminar on them. I am assuming this is the company name though I will have to check the specific label plate to be sure. We uses them to drill specific types of holes on Virginia class submarines. They are in use all over this shipyard. Very nice machines and a step up from the olde air drills we used to utilize. A bit bulkey in some compartments but we manage. Mostly we use standard numbered shank tapered machine drill bits though on occasion we use specially made cutters for specific jobs.

As to Fred T's post on American Chopper. No I dont usually watch this program though I did see a issue where they cut a rim in a CnC machine from a block of aluminum. That was fascinating. They have these machines here and I watch them when I have time in the main machine shop. Unfortunately I am usually hard pressed for time and only go there to get specific tools for jobs where time is at a premium. It is fascinating to watch.
Amazing the type of tools that are available now days that were not or were in their infancy ...20 years ago.

Thanks,
Orangetom

OCC (Orange County Choppers) uses one of these Flow Jet cutters from what I have seen on the show

www.flowcorp.com...



[edit on 9-8-2005 by warpboost]

Its an amazing machine:

When water is pressurized up to 60,000 pounds or more per square inch (psi) and forced through a tiny opening, it can cut a variety of soft materials including food, paper and baby diapers, rubber and foam. When small amounts of abrasive particles, such as garnet, are mixed into the jet stream, the resulting "abrasive waterjet" can cut virtually any hard material such as metal, composites, stone and glass.

Up to 8-in. thick steel and titanium are cut on a production basis. There have been cases where 12-in and even 15-in. thick material has been cut. The vast majority of users, however, cut between 1/4-in. to 2-in. thick materials.
www.flowcorp.com...

Fifteen inches is alot of material to cut through. ALso note the 8" of titanium. Im not sure exactly of the relative hardness of the HY100 steel used but again thats alot of material.

8" of Ti


not to get off topic, but speaking of water jet cutting technology I know a guy who owned a company that made high end silk dress shirts and he said they cut the silk with a water jet because its fast, precise, cheap (no blades to sharpen or replace) and most importantly it doesn't fray the silk like a blade would.


I have also seen water jet cutters used to cut rock in granite quarrys

[edit on 9-8-2005 by warpboost]

It is just unusual from here to see anyone else mention that category of metal. It is expensive as well as is HY80.
As to hardness..it is noticalby harder than HSS HTS or mild steels. One can tell when Drilling. You really have to keep the coolant coming or you will be often changing drill bits.
When you cut it with a abrasive wheel or disc the sparks dont throw out as far as with the softer mild steels.

Thanks,
Orangetom