From: Hans-Günther Moser [moser@mppmu.mpg.de]
Sent: 22 October 2003 16:14
To: Carlos.Lacasta@ific.uv.es
Cc: Phil Allport; Carlos Lacasta
Subject: RE: Spine production

Hi Carlos

here a report for tomorrow:

Spine report:

The washer glueing has stopped till this week, the new technician had visa problems and cannot come before Oct. 22, will resume then.

The ISTC contract is signed and in power now. They are already ordering raw material via ISTC (AlN)

Extra production of 229 is under way. 30 are made, the components for all are ready, except the coating step. 
This seems to be slower then planned. The target was to make 50-100 a week, but so far only 50 have been coated 
in 4 weeks. I will find out what slows them down. Once all are coated assembly takes 2 weeks.

ISTC production has started (already in September) see below.


Existing Spines (at CERN, excluding spines shipped to production sites, e.g 5 went to Melbourne this week)

outer:   16 (+10 to arrive this week)
middle:  40
inner:   31


Production


a) extra:  30 already made, partially distributed
           200 AlN components & spacers ready
           50  TPG coated, ready for assembly
           150 TPG, cut, profiled, waits coating

b) ISTC    300 raw TPG plates are ready (however, I do not know which mix of
types)
           of them
           70 outer
           15 middle
           16 inner   are cut and profiled, waiting for coating

           AlN 0.225 mm pieces: 0 made yet, but AlN on stock
           800 main wings are made
           700 far end wings for outers made
           540 "   "    "    for middles
           450 "   "    "    for inners
           1150 middle wings partially made (to be metalized)
           170 pairs of spacers made

I'm discussing a modification of the transport boxes with IHEP, it seems that the cracks in the AlN are caused 
by these boxes.

Please send 'out of spec' and damages spines to CERN! Some of them can be repaird. We made a set of assembly 
tools, so broken AlN wings etc can be replaced, bowed spines can be flattened ect. If you send them back, 
please do not forget the database shipment. And a small detail: in the database send them to MPI! Otherwise 
I will not be informed about the shipment!

Conclusion: production of extra ongoing, however some delays with coating. ISTC production has started.

Concerning your schedule: Officially we agreed that we make with ISTC 148/month. However, it was always 
pointed out that this is not sufficient and this has to increase and there are efforts to do so. I hope that 
we can reach the 208/month in your schedule. We have to see how the ISTC starts up. Presently all, except the 
coating, seems to be ok. I have to find out what slowed down the coating, I hope it is only a temporary problem. 
I sent the schedule to IHEP, waiting for comments.

THe numbers in the contracs (extra, ISTC) are for 'good' spines ('in specs'). Losses during module production 
are not covered. Indeed, presently the yield was not that great, but after some iterations it must improve. 
Feedback is important. I also stress again that every bad spine should be returned! This way we can eventually 
learn how to avoid this failure in future and perhaps it can even be repaired.


cheers, Hans-Günther


-----Original Message-----
From: Carlos Lacasta [mailto:Carlos.Lacasta@ific.uv.es]
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2003 11:51
To: Hans-Günther Moser
Cc: Phil Allport; Carlos Lacasta
Subject: Spine production


Dear Hans-Günther,

Find attached our estimate of the spines production schedule. THe numbers are just a guess from your last 
schedule and the current delay. COuld you please check this is correct and send us an updated schedule based 
in the attached document ?

Since we are here: what is the status of the 229 outer spines ? In the schedule we send you we assume they will 
all arrive in November and that we will not start getting production spines until completion of the 229 program. 
Is that correct ?

There is still another issue. From the numbers in the EXCEL file we see that the contingency is 15% for middles 
and inners (outers seem to be higher due to the 229 extra ones). THis is a bit worrying if we interpret the 
numbers as produced spines, since the yield was a bit too low until recently (I do not know whether this has 
been improved). Could you let us know how should we interpret the monthly production ? If it has the 
"pesimistic" interpretation I clearly see we will run out of spines...


Regards,

	Carlos