LSET Darren Walters repairing a CCA.

The Fleet Intermediate Maintenance Activity - Sydney (FIMA-S) is responsible to Commander Fleet Maintenance (CFM) for providing intermediate maintenance assistance for rectification of defects beyond the normal capacity or capabilities of ships' staff.

Within FIMA-S is the Circuit Card Assembly Test and Repair Facility (CCA-TRF), commonly referred to as the 'FIMA PCB Lab', that is the primary facility for intermediate level test and repair of circuit card assemblies (CCAs).

During 2000, FIMA CCA-TRF received approximately 200 analogue and digital CCAs for testing, repair and signature set development for the Huntron 5100DS.

Most of these CCAs came from the Logistics Support Organisation (LSA), directly off ships (on a TM200 basis), and from the FFG Propulsion Control System Trainer and Combat System Maintenance School.

The laboratory has also undertaken ORDALTS and TM179 action for the LSA and MOTU. The CCA-TRF also operates as a 'drop in' centre offering troubleshooting assistance for urgent repair work for ships alongside.

There are over 1400 test programs that support CCAs from numerous systems including Mk-92 FCS, Mk-15 CWIS, SPS-49 Radar and PCS.

The CCA-TRF use these test programs to diagnose and pinpoint the location of possible components that may be causing the CCA to fail.

Three types of automatic test stations are currently used by the CCA-TRF to test the CCAs. These are the M3 - ATS, the Genrad 2225 and the Huntron 5100DS.

All these stations run test programs that determine whether or not a CCA is serviceable. If the CCA is non-serviceable a list of possible faulty components is generated which are then tested individually to isolate the faulty components.

The RANs main method of in circuit testing is the GenRad 2225 that isolates the faulty components to be replaced by a Technician.

All Technicians working at the CCA-TRF gain their qualifications from the HMAS Albatross, Nowra and repair to the ANSI IPC A 610, J-STD-001 Standard.

FIMA Sydney CCA-TRF is the also only designated Australian Defence Force repair agent for the GenRad.

The GenRad is no longer supported by the USN or by GenRad Inc. and as the predominant user of the GenRad, the RAN provides user training and maintenance, repair and calibration actions on the GenRad for both the RAAF and the Army.

The FIMA Sydney CCA-TRF website will be operating shortly and will provide greater visibility to the support organisation of the capability of the lab and access to repair specifications and standards.

The web site will be able to be accessed through http://defweb.cbr.defence.gov.au/navycme/fimaccatrf/home.htm [Defence Network access only].

Daily operation of the FIMA CCA-TRF is overseen by POET Adam Smith (Ph: 02 9359 3670) with ATE and TPS acquisition and support managed by LEUT Kirsten Davis of CME.

By LEUT Kirsten Davis