Darth Ruger
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http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-0/11430927398790.xml?starledger?nut&coll=1
Inventive Picatinny worker devises time-saving solution
Thursday, March 23, 2006
BY LISA VERNON-SPARKS
Star-Ledger Staff
It was considered the most tedious, time-consuming and tiring job at Picatinny Arsenal: separating thousands of spent bullet casings from their metal links -- by hand -- for proper disposal.
The gig belonged to Lark Berhman and a few of her co-workers.
After nine years of enduring the work, Berhman decided enough was enough.
She didn't quit. An enterprising mother of two, Berhman figured out a way to make the job easier by coming up with a faster way to separate the casings.
Her idea, dubbed the CLEM -- which stands for casings/links extracted magnetically -- is a machine with magnets that does the job in a fraction of the time.
The suggestion did not go unnoticed. The U.S. Army thanked Berhman with a $4,025 award that she received earlier this month. The product will save the arsenal about $77,000 annually, officials said.
"I'm always the one to say 'there has to be a better way.' I wanted to make it faster and easier on us physically. And safer, because when you got tired you would start missing the live rounds. I did it for myself and my co-workers because we all hated it," said Berhman, 50, from Rockaway Township
The dreaded task of separating at least a half-million spent casings annually was done by Berhman and about seven others who work at the arsenal's armament technology facility.
The casings come from the thousands of bullet rounds fired off daily at the indoor range by firearms technicians testing weapons.
About three years ago, Berhman started researching on the Internet for magnetic separators. She searched recycling companies that have large metal separators.
Then she found a company that makes industrial magnetic separators and asked if representatives could create something similar on a smaller scale.
What the company came up with was a near 5-foot-tall metal cube with magnets. Instead of separating the casings manually, everyone could toss them inside the cube, which automatically separates the casings and links, depositing them into two bins.
Berhman pitched the idea, twice in three years, to evaluators at Picatinny who finally budgeted about $5,500 -- the cost to purchase the box. But the machine needed more power and Berhman had Picatinny electricians hook it up. That cost another $2,000.
The idea had its critics, too.
Jeff Chiesa, a mechanical engineer technician and co-worker of Berhman, initially was concerned about how safe it was to toss everything into the pot.
"I had a question about the live rounds. But nothing has gone off," Chiesa said, adding that he commends Berhman for coming up with the idea. "We still have drawbacks. ... As far as time-wise, you still have thousands of rounds to go through."
For now, some officials at Picatinny want the prototype mass-produced.
Inventive Picatinny worker devises time-saving solution
Thursday, March 23, 2006
BY LISA VERNON-SPARKS
Star-Ledger Staff
It was considered the most tedious, time-consuming and tiring job at Picatinny Arsenal: separating thousands of spent bullet casings from their metal links -- by hand -- for proper disposal.
The gig belonged to Lark Berhman and a few of her co-workers.
After nine years of enduring the work, Berhman decided enough was enough.
She didn't quit. An enterprising mother of two, Berhman figured out a way to make the job easier by coming up with a faster way to separate the casings.
Her idea, dubbed the CLEM -- which stands for casings/links extracted magnetically -- is a machine with magnets that does the job in a fraction of the time.
The suggestion did not go unnoticed. The U.S. Army thanked Berhman with a $4,025 award that she received earlier this month. The product will save the arsenal about $77,000 annually, officials said.
"I'm always the one to say 'there has to be a better way.' I wanted to make it faster and easier on us physically. And safer, because when you got tired you would start missing the live rounds. I did it for myself and my co-workers because we all hated it," said Berhman, 50, from Rockaway Township
The dreaded task of separating at least a half-million spent casings annually was done by Berhman and about seven others who work at the arsenal's armament technology facility.
The casings come from the thousands of bullet rounds fired off daily at the indoor range by firearms technicians testing weapons.
About three years ago, Berhman started researching on the Internet for magnetic separators. She searched recycling companies that have large metal separators.
Then she found a company that makes industrial magnetic separators and asked if representatives could create something similar on a smaller scale.
What the company came up with was a near 5-foot-tall metal cube with magnets. Instead of separating the casings manually, everyone could toss them inside the cube, which automatically separates the casings and links, depositing them into two bins.
Berhman pitched the idea, twice in three years, to evaluators at Picatinny who finally budgeted about $5,500 -- the cost to purchase the box. But the machine needed more power and Berhman had Picatinny electricians hook it up. That cost another $2,000.
The idea had its critics, too.
Jeff Chiesa, a mechanical engineer technician and co-worker of Berhman, initially was concerned about how safe it was to toss everything into the pot.
"I had a question about the live rounds. But nothing has gone off," Chiesa said, adding that he commends Berhman for coming up with the idea. "We still have drawbacks. ... As far as time-wise, you still have thousands of rounds to go through."
For now, some officials at Picatinny want the prototype mass-produced.
