MTL's Chemical Certification Capability
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The War Reserve Material Compatibility Board (WRMCB) is responsible
for ensuring all process materials contacting a War Reserve
(WR) part are qualified and certified prior to use. Because
process material control is essential to good manufacturing
processes, the Los Alamos National Laboratory's Applied Chemical
Technology (C-ACT) group established the Material Testing
Laboratory (MTL) to test process materials under stringent
quality standards.
Process materials that contact WR parts during manufacturing include solvents, wipers, and cutting fluids. Contact with incompatible process materials could adversely affect the functionality and storage life of a weapon and weapon certification. The MTL laboratories complete the chemical and physical testing needed by the WRMCB and report these findings and recommendations to them. Once the WRMBC Board approves a process material, a procurement specification is generated. All process materials purchased through these specifications are certified through acceptance testing.
The MTL Administrative and Chemical Approach
- The MTL approaches their WR Materials Certification Missions by:
Investigating, outlining and defining test methods that will ensure product conformity with process material specifications as outlined by the WRMCB Board. - Developing a quality management plan to meet QC-1 criteria mandated by the Department of Energy (DOE).
- Coordinating and utilizing the analysis capabilities within C-ACT and teams within other LANL organizations* to bring a diverse set of instrumental capabilities and technical expertise to perform the chemical test methods defined in item 1.
- The results of compatibility and other chemical and physical testing of materials selected by the WRMCB are summarized and recommendations are presented to the Board.
*C-ACS, C-SIC, C-INC, MST-6, MST-8, and NMT-16.
Contact: Timothy Ellis
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