Central Iowa Section Meeting - Collins Aerospace Lab Tour
This month we have the rare opportunity to tour a Collins Aerospace facility located in West Des Moines. The facility has strict security requirements and requires us to submit information for each attendee for clearance before the tour. The tour is limited to the first 25 individuals who apply and receive clearance.
The 2200 Delavan Drive facility is a 36,000 sq. ft. facility that is part of the Delavan Fuel nozzle entity which is part of the larger Collins Aerospace organization. The facility currently has approximately 40 employees within its walls and does a vast number of activities for the larger Delavan organization that currently employs approximately 500 individuals in West Des Moines and Carroll, Iowa. The 2200 Delavan drive facility is primarily separated into 2 different functioning value streams. The 1st value stream is the R&D business, which has a machining facility that conventionally machines components to go into production and development fuel nozzles for the Aero and Industrial fuel nozzle business. Along with the R&D machine shop are facilities to complete ignition and lean blow out test at atmospheric conditions (section of a combustor on a jet engine). In addition to the ignition testing, the engineering team has several spray diagnostic equipment for measuring spray distribution and PDPA – Phase Doppler Particulate Analyzer in order to measure spray and droplet characteristics on development and production nozzles. To complement the spray analysis, the engineering team utilized CFD software (ANSYS) and OpenFOAM to predict nozzle stress (LCF and HCF) along with predicting nozzle spray performance to validate on the spray characterization equipment. A vibration table and vibe testing is used to validate our nozzle designs prior to engine installation. The second part of the business unit is the industrial fuel nozzle and additive manufacturing value stream. The industrial fuel nozzle team delivers swirlers and fuel nozzles to external customers like Siemens, KHI, PWPS, Solar, & Vericor for ground based power generation. The additive team and equipment currently grow (builds assemblies from powder and laser welding) for external customer and internal (Collins, Pratt and Whitney) customers. This part of the value stream is known in the Collins business as the additive production center of excellence and the product being grown is primarily fuel nozzles, heat exchanges, and complex aerospace designs where the conventional machine and assembly method struggles to be an economical option. Materials of focus are Inconel 625 and Haynes 282 powder that is used to make these complex designs for our customer base.
Directions to the Lab from I-235:
Take the freeway to the 63rd Street exit and turn south. Turn right onto Grand Ave. Drive approximately 2 miles until you pass E.P.True Parkway/Railroad Avenue then turn right at the next street onto Delavan Drive. Follow Delavan Drive until you arrive at a building with a large "Collins Aerospace" sign on the building. Use the parking lot in front of the building and come in the front door to the lobby. If the parking lot is full use the parking lot behind the building then come in the front door. Stay in the lobby until the tour begins.
James Klemm, IEEE Life Senior member, arranged this tour. Jim retired 14 years ago after working at this facility for 39 years.
Date and Time
Location
Hosts
Registration
- Date: 27 Feb 2020
- Time: 05:30 PM to 08:30 PM
- All times are (GMT-06:00) US/Central
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- 2200 Delavan Drive
- West Des Moines, Iowa
- United States 50265
- Building: Collins Aerospace
Agenda
5:30 to 6:00 PM: Final Security Check – must bring your (non-expired) passport
6:00 to 7:00 PM: Tour the Lab – five attendees per tour guide (5 guides will be available)
7:15 to 8:15 PM: Dinner at The Tavern, 205 5th Street in downtown West Des Moines (parking is
available in front or behind the Tavern)
If you wish to attend this tour, please send the following information to Jim, j.klemm@ieee.org, by February 19th:
Full name (First, Middle, Last)
Birthdate
Passport number
Passport expiration date (Must not be expired)
Jim will advise you by e-mail if you were one of the first 25 individuals who passed the security clearance and eligible to attend the tour.