TOBYHANNA ARMY DEPOT, Pa. -- A new machine recently installed here will save time, money and improve the safety of personnel in the depot's Tactical Vehicle Branch.
One effort of branch employees involves removing run-flat inserts from damaged tires of High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (or Humvee) and Trailer Mounted Support Systems. The process using the old machine, which could take in excess of half an hour per tire, required attaching a strap to the run-flat and cranking it out of the tire by hand with the potential to snap the strap or send the run-flat flying across the shop. Thanks to the new machine from Hutchinson Industries, Inc., employees can remove and install a run-flat into a tire in a fraction of the time with just the push of a button.
"The Hutchinson machine mechanically compresses the run-flat and puts it into the new tire," said Branch Chief Anthony DeFrancesco. "Doing four tires sometimes used to take employees six hours and now it only takes one."
The process to bring the machine to the depot began with a benchmark trip conducted last year. Personnel traveled to the Hutchinson facility in New Jersey to validate time savings between removal and installation of Humvee run-flats using an old machine and a new one. From observations made during the study, the depot realized potential time and cost savings while adding a new capability to handle tires larger than what current capabilities allow.
Nathaniel Isaac, general equipment repairer, said the machine also lightens the load on depot employees.
"The old machine was back-breaking and really dangerous. If a strap broke it was like getting hit with a whip," he said.
Run-flat tires allow vehicles to continue operations even with complete pressure loss in several tires. Getting run-flat equipped systems back in the hands of warfighters in a timely manner ensures this capability is retained.
"Before we got the new machine, some TMSS would come here and sit for weeks because we didn't have the capability to fix the run-flats and would have to ship them to New Jersey for repair," said Michael DeAngelo, general equipment mechanic leader in the branch. "Not only does the new machine save us time and money, but it saves Soldiers time and helps make sure they can get to where they need to go."
Using the old machine, branch employees would spend between 30-40 hours per week on run-flat repair. At a cost of $60,000, DeFrancesco said the new machine should provide enough time and cost savings to pay for itself in less than a year.
Tobyhanna Army Depot is a recognized leader in providing world-class logistics support for command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems across the Department of Defense. Tobyhanna's Corporate Philosophy, dedicated work force and electronics expertise ensure the depot is the Joint C4ISR provider of choice for all branches of the Armed Forces and industry partners.
Tobyhanna's unparalleled capabilities include full-spectrum logistics support for sustainment, overhaul and repair, fabrication and manufacturing, engineering design and development, systems integration, post production software support, technology insertion, modification, foreign military sales and global field support to our Joint Warfighters.
About 3,200 personnel are employed at Tobyhanna, which is located in the Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania. Tobyhanna Army Depot is part of the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command. Headquartered at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, the command's mission is to research, develop, acquire, field and sustain communications, command, control computer, intelligence, electronic warfare and sensors capabilities for the Armed Forces.
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