On Site at “NASA”
Where U.S. Pipelining is restoring a 24” diameter high temperature, high pressure intercondenser line in the In-Space Propulsion Facility (ISP) at NASA’s John Glenn Plum Brook facility. Using materials and resins designed to meet NASA specification, USP will install the project specific Cured-In-Place-Pipe (CIPP) within the facility’s intercondenser line.
Plum Brook Station is a remote test facility for the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Located on 6,400 acres in the Lake Erie community of Sandusky, Plum Brook is home to four world-class test facilities, which perform complex and innovative ground tests for the international space community.
The Space Power Facility (SPF) houses the world’s largest and most powerful space environment simulation facilities including the Space Simulation Vacuum Chamber measuring 100 ft. in diameter by 122 ft. high. The Reverberant Acoustic Test Facility is the world’s most powerful spacecraft acoustic test chamber, which can simulate the noise of a spacecraft launch up to 163 decibels or as loud as the thrust of 20 jet engines.
The Mechanical Vibration Facility is the world’s highest capacity and most powerful spacecraft shaker system, subjecting test articles to the rigorous conditions of launch.
In-Space Propulsion Facility (ISP) is the world’s only facility capable of testing full-scale, upper-stage launch vehicles and rocket engines under simulated high-altitude conditions. The engine or vehicle can be exposed for indefinite periods to low ambient pressures, low-background temperatures and dynamic solar heating to simulate the environment of orbital or interplanetary travelspace environment and propulsion test facilities currently being used to advance NASA’s
“What Pipe Can We Repair For You?”
The over-the-hole installation of 10-ft diameter CIPP liner is among the largest to have been successfully completed anywhere. Requiring more than a year of planning, sourcing, and logistics, the project involved support from the nation’s premier suppliers to the industry.
“As projects go, this was one of the more challenging with which we’ve been involved,” said Bill Moore, AOC product leader-CIPP resins. “Our team was engaged from day one as we worked through the selection and formulation of the resin in order to meet both environmental and engineering specifications. The sheer size of the liners being installed required six tankers carrying over 240,000 lbs of resin to be transported to the base from our plant in Canada. The logistics and delivery of material was a critical component.”
