by John W.
What did I do for my company?
Over the 25 years that I was employed by Martin Marietta, I worked in five
different departments, all related to electro-optical engineering. I especially
enjoyed working with the TADS/PNVS program. I volunteered many times outside of
my department discipline, outside working hours, on my own time. Two efforts I
enjoy remembering to this day. Both produced cost savings.
The first when was when,
after a long period of time, the assembly department had been rejecting telephoto
doublets, which go into the dayside path of the TADS. They are very expensive
to build and rework. I discovered that prior testing had been faulty. I
demonstrated a testing technique using existing equipment, and it was
successful. I saw a need and it was fun doing.
The second was when the modulation
transfer function equipment, used to pass optical subassemblies, was down.
Unfortunately, there was no one locally to fix it. An option was to call a tech
down from New York. I was asked by another department to have a look at it
because I had prior knowledge of the equipment. I stayed after hours and was
able to fix the MTF analyzer, and have quality control stamp it. The serious
cost savings came with keeping the subassemblies going to the final assembly
area.
