The men and women of Anniston Army Depot's Hydraulic Systems Branch overhaul a wide variety of components from several different combat vehicle and artillery platforms.
All work, from disassembly and cleaning through repair and paint to assembly, is done in-house.
"We have a highly-skilled workforce," said Mike Gray, pneudraulics leader for the branch. "We do a lot of cross-training to build and maintain those skill levels on the various vehicle platforms."
Gray has been an employee in the Hydraulic Systems Branch for 12 years. In that time, he has seen increased testing capabilities added, new workstations to assist the flow of work, better parts management and, most importantly, an improved assembly area.
As recently as 10 years ago, train tracks ran along the floor of the building and the room where assembly of the various hydraulic components took place had a welding shop at one end.
Now, the assembly area is a clean room, climate-controlled and set up not only to ensure parts are assembled in an efficient way, but one that meets the high standards of their customers.
"A clean room is a requirement," said Gray. "Dust, even down to lint from the rags, can affect performance of hydraulic parts."
Once the parts are assembled, a paint booth is used to ensure the right primer, correct color and the exact amount of hardening agent are applied to each piece.
It's one of two paint booths at ANAD which are capable of custom-mixing paint specifically for each part.
The oven for the paint booth also has the ability to raise its temperature to 400 degrees.
As Gray is pleased to point out, the shop boasts one of the installation's subject matter experts on painting, David Renfroe.
When told he was among the best on the installation, Renfroe humbly pointed out that, "I should be a good painter. I've been doing it since I was 16."
When a part is ready for testing, the shop likes to make sure they have more than done their job.
"We perform a variety of tests which stress the part up to 125 percent of whatever the component is rated for," said Gray.
This ensures any component overhauled at the depot is not only able to stand up to normal conditions and use, but any adverse conditions and exceptional use as well.
"Hydraulics is a very technical job," said Gray. "We have employees who specialize in certain components, such as slip rings, and are experts in that area."
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