(Only minor grammatical changes w.r.t. draft version)

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Meeting at NFRA, 10 Nov 1999. Minutes by Nigel Douglas.

PN.S Team: Koen Kuijken, Nigel Douglas
NFRA: Jos de Haas, Jan Iserda

Goal of the meeting was to discuss the problems that have lead to the
mechanical work (MW) for the PN.S project coming to a halt (no progress
has been made for approximately 1 month), to assess the man-hours
required for completion and to agree on extra work which can be taken on
to utilise the commitment of 7 man months made by NFRA. 

The MW for the collimator housing needs to be done in part by an outside
contractor due to limitations of NFRA machinery.  For the camera housing
nearly all needs to be done by an outside contractor (Rollepaal in
Dedemvaart has been chosen and has given quotes for some of the work). 
It was agreed that if at all possible the post-machining treatment of
the housing should be done at this stage - this means chromateren
(probably), and painting inside and out.  All of this (probably) to be
done by the outside contractor. 

Outside work requires payment in money and the absence of a source of
money has lead to cessation of the work.  In the opinion of the PN.S,
NFRA has committed itself to the mechanical work and the use of outside
labour to circumvent internal problems is primarily a problem to be
solved by NFRA itself.  NFRA agrees with this in principle but disagrees
about the extent to which an explicit commitment has been made (i.e. 
fabrication of the housing).  Both sides agree, however, that during
discussions which took place earlier this year, NFRA made it clear that
manpower for fine mechanical work (FMW) was not available and that
fabrication of the housing was the only realistic option. 
PN.S underlined the fact that the MW in general, and the
housing in particular, is now in the "critical path" for the project
and that the housing is urgently required by the end of the year.

Given the above, the PN.S appeals strongly to NFRA to try to obtain
authorisation for having the work done out of house at NFRA's expense,
debitting the project for the number of man hours corresponding to the
work had it been done in house.  The only cash funding allocated to the
housing is for materials (maximum f 5000) and this is in principle not
intended for the purposes of subcontracting though a small amount of
flexibility is possible.  NFRA (JI) estimates the total amount of
subcontracting to be of the order of f 10.000. 

Assuming for the moment that this problem can indeed be solved
internally, the discussion continued with an assessment of the extra
work which could be done within the budget of 7 man-months.  Based on
estimates made by the workshop at RSAA (Mt Stromlo) this could consist
of the fabrication of (all of the) lens cells (see
pns/project/WPD26.html, dated 9 November).  To `calibrate' the estimate,
a full set of workshop drawings of the Field Lens Cell was given to NFRA
(this consists of Parts List #9 as shown on the project page and all
drawings listed in it).  NFRA has been asked to study this analysis and
comment. 

With the results of this analysis in hand, the PN.S might be in a
position to offer NFRA a paying contract for some of the remaining FMW. 
Although the PN.S already has received a bid for this work at $A40 per
hour, it retains the right to split this work up and allocate some of it
to NFRA.  Advantage for the PN.S is increased parallelism and thus
reduced time scale.  Advantage for NFRA is the possibility of generating
cash (e.g.  f 10.000) with which to pay for outside work, thus keeping
its work for the PN.S "cash neutral" or even positive. 

NFRA assisted the PN.S with some technical questions, such as the
feasibility of certain tolerances and the effects of post-machining
treatments such as anodization and chromateren. 

Action items:
	
	JI to study WPD26 proposal and to give a time estimate for
	that job.

	JI to check with Rollepaal for new quotes, including chromateren
	and painting

	JdH to investigate internal solutions to enable work
	to proceed

	JdH to send responses on the above matters to PN.S by November 24.