[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

[PSUBS-MAILIST] 1402 conning tower

Steve,

I think you will find that the shiny hatch mating surface is, in fact, a monel cladding layer on A516. That was the standard on all Perry mating surfaces, as monel was more ding resistent and didn't give you any stress corrosion issues. It was probably cheaper at the time, too, which was always a consideration. We had one of those big old fashioned rotary tables in the weld shop that could do submerged arc, wire-fed cladding. And, as a side note, the narrow 6-window conning towers had two hatch dogs, same as the bigger ones (28"OD).

There is a huge operational difference between the 6 and 8 window conning tower. The big one is enormous by comparison, and gives a lot better viz. And I mean a LOT. You might not think it would make that much difference, but it does. The PC-14s used the smaller one in a 42" hull, but the other two built to that size (PC-8 and PS-2) both used the 8-window unit.Also, the 8 windows were flush outside with their mounting flange bolts inside the hull (long bolts running down through the reinforcement collar.

One other side note for accuracy: PC-15 and the two PC-16 also used the 6-window unit. The former was specified by Vickers, the latter pair were due to design constraints on the highly stressed HY-100 hulls (which were only 1/2" thick, as I recall--that HY-100 is STRONG stuff!!!). 

All conns were bolt ons for a couple of reasons. First of all, you could lower the sub's profile in short order if necessary for shipping, and secondly, because you could build the conning towers on the bench, do all the machining on the floor tools, and only had to worry about one mating surface in the hull.

Production was the deal. You have to remember that when Perry was in its prime, we'd have one to three subs under construction, a bell or two, and maybe another half dozen major pieces to a decompression/saturation system, including a whole section of the mechanical shop to bend tubing and build control panels and the like.
 
It was a very busy place. Great fun, too.
Vance