9 17 Woods Hole Woods 8 1 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution TIMET Northrop Grumman 5 2 Robert Brown/courtesy of Southwest Research Institute Robert Brown/courtesy of Southwest Aerobraze Engineered Technologies —Kurt Uetz The Ladish Company Photo and inset by Advanced Imaging and Visualization Lab/WHOI Photo and inset by Advanced Imaging and Visualization 7 Institute Southwest Research “We took 41,000 pounds of titanium pounds an built and took“We 41,000 Advanced Imaging & Visualization Laboratory, WHOI Laboratory, Advanced Imaging & Visualization 11,000-pound sphere, and left sphere, and over the shavings all U.S.” 11,000-pound Stadco 6 4 3 Bodycote www.whoi.edu/oceanus | ’s upgrade began with a larger, stronger personnel sphere to give occupants more room and visibility room occupants more give to personnel sphere stronger began with a larger, upgrade ’s The process began in 2008 with three ingots from TIMET, a mill in Pennsylvania, two at Pennsylvania, a mill in TIMET, ingots from began in 2008 with three The process  17,000 pounds each and one at 7,000 pounds. The Ladish Company beat the in- Milwaukee for forging. sent to were The two larger ingots them up and pressed and 4 inches thick. They heated gots into disks about 140 inches across round mold and built a massive Then they them down. pressed heated them up, them down, each heated disk into the mold to make two hemispheres. pressed heated in an were in Los Angeles for annealing. They to Bodycote went The hemispheres oxygen and other elements, and quenched in water within of in a specific atmosphere oven, material properties the metal’s captures Annealing 60 seconds of coming out of the oven. to enough be strong so it can be machined, yet toughness’ it what they call ‘material to give inch. of going to ocean depths at 10,000 pounds per square absorb the stress machined to they were in Anaheim, where to Stadco went the two hemispheres there, From is about 30 one-thou- out-of-roundness thickness of 2.81 inches. The greatest their current weld the two hemispheres weld to sandths of an inch. Then they used an electron-beam vacuum of than the vacuum, greater It was done in extreme together without any filler metal. weld. Then they machined openings for the win- any air that could affect the space, to reduce the smaller ingot With the hatch, and two parts on the back called penetrator plates. dows, welded into place. also electron-beam they made fluted inserts were for the holes. Those in stress expands and then shrinks. That leaves the metal close to the weld weld, When you it where in Ohio, Technologies Engineered was shipped to Aerobraze the sphere the metal. So all the welding. from the stress and then cooled to relieve oven in a vacuum was heated slowly welds. machining and some minor went back to Anaheim for more Then it Research the primary Southwest where Antonio, contractor for the sphere, to San it went there From made of a high-grade optical acrylic. are The windows installed the hatch and windows. Institute, the tests. For in Annapolis for hydrostatic Grumman to Northrop went the sphere Next, is because if the sphere water, filled with are test, both the chamber and the sphere pressure could get shrapnel flying about. The test is performedempty and it fails, it implodes, and you was for specified amounts of time. The sphere depths and held there in stages of increasing - even ’s deeper than Alvin tested to 8,000 meters, nearly 12,000 psi, which is about 24 percent passed all the tests. tual maximum operating depth of 6,500 meters. It p vehicle. we began assembling it into the June, 2012, and WHOI in to was delivered The sphere Tom Kleindinst/WHOI Tom 9 6 7 8 5 4 3 2 1 Alvin exists in the a handful of deep-diving spheres to 6,500 meters. Only the sub to dive allow and eventually Uetz helped supervise manager Kurt 1973. Alvin project had been forged in the U.S. since None world. cross-country and describes its journey. manufacture the sphere Getting ‘the Ball’ Rolling Ball’ ‘the Getting is one-of-a-kind ‘The Ball’) sphere (a.k.a. new Personnel Alvin’s Oceanus Magazine Vol. No. Summer 51, 1, 2014 The People 16