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A Design Study in Steel - ME Elecmetal Crawler Track Shoe

Quality Assurance

NASA placed very stringent requirements for quality assurance on the track shoe.  These QA directives covered both process control and documentation and evaluation and testing of the castings.  

The initial Phase 1 prototype established the processes for mold and core fabrication, melting and pouring, heat treatment, finishing, and machining of the castings. 


Surface Flatness Inspection

Magnetic Particle Inspection

Testing and inspection included --

  • The testing of 21 hardness points on each casting.  

  • Verification of surface finish on external and internal surfaces and magnetic particle inspection of each casting.  

  • Verification on each casting for conformance to height and road surface flatness requirements. 

  • Dimensional verification on each machined feature of pin lug pitch and location. 

  • One of every ten of shoes were randomly selected for ultrasonic and radiographic examination.  

  • One of every thirty-two shoes was subjected to a complete dimensional verification.  

  • One of every fifty-seven shoes was destructively tested to verify internal dimensions, soundness, uniformity of microstructure, through hardness, and mechanical strength.


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Copyright 2006  by the Steel Founders' Society of America   All rights reserved. 
Address comments to: blairr@sfsa.org
Last Modified:July, 2006 by STG

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In cooperation with ME Elecmetal