QUALITY & TESTING SERVICES

AMETEK SCP's quality and testing systems are second to none, building on decades of experience in both the commercial and military arenas.   Quality Assurance Quality assurance programs are developed utilizing in-place, government-approved, quality system procedures which are fully compliant with ISO 9002. The following paragraphs present an overview of the quality assurance effort at AMETEK SCP Inc.  Major tasks to be accomplished by the quality assurance program include:     Initial Quality Planning Preparation of Quality Program Plan Acceptance of Purchased Equipment Manufacturing Control Control of test programs   Quality Assurance has primary and direct management responsibility for pre-production and limited production programs for which system integration and acceptance tests are conducted in the AMETEK SCP's facility. Quality Assurance personnel also impact the design effort though the attendance of informal and formal design reviews throughout the program.   The Quality Assurance engineer is responsible for initial quality planning and for coordinating the accomplishment of all associated tasks. For the contract, overall management control is exercised through the Quality Program Plan. Satisfactory accomplishments of all tasks not under direct control of the Quality Assurance Engineer is verified by data review and/or periodic audits.

Quality Program Management

To accomplish the Quality Project responsibility, the customers Contract Manager in conjunction with Engineering and Quality Assurance identifies the major quality tasks to be performed in compliance with contractual requirements, division policy and procedures, and otherwise as required in support of the development program. The Project Manager assigns functional responsibility for the performance of these tasks, and establishes schedules and budgets. The method of accomplishing these tasks are then formalized in the Quality Program Plan which will be prepared by the Quality Assurance functional organization.   To ensure cooperation and communication across functional lines, the Quality Assurance Manager is assigned with single point responsibility for verification of successful implementation of the Quality Program. He is responsible for quality status reporting to Program and Product Assurance Management. Throughout the contract, the Quality Assurance Manager maintains cognizance of program activities and quality status. As related to the project, his primary responsibilities include assurance of uniform implementation of company policy, procedures and standards; provisioning of resources including personnel, equipment and facilities to accomplish quality tasks; and independent assessment of quality. The Quality Assurance Manager has the authority to arbitrate unresolved quality issues and to stop production, or suspend shipment of a product which does not meet contractual requirements or company standards.

Engineering Quality Assurance

AMETEK SCP Inc. places major emphasis on problem avoidance, early problem detection, and on positive action to correct conditions adverse to product quality. During development programs, hardware quality specialists within the Engineering Group are responsible for preparation of quality program plans and for active participation in all design review and test activity. Their primary objective is to ensure the adequacy of design specifications regarding quality provisions, effectiveness and completeness of test programs, and finally, for proper identification and disposition of all detected non-conformances. During the manufacturing phase, the assigned hardware quality specialist will interface with all manufacturing functions to ensure that design quality provisions are fully understood and adequately covered.

Manufacturing Quality Assurance

All products manufactured within the AMETEK SCP's facility are to uniform quality standards under the control of the company per the ISO 9001 Quality Program. Purchasing, manufacturing, and test operations will be performed in accordance with established procedures under the surveillance and control of the Manufacturing Quality Assurance organization.   AMETEK SCP Inc. brings over 30 years experience in manufacturing of commercial and military underwater connectors having designed and manufactured a wide variety of underwater connectors and associated hardware. These range from the simplest rubber-molded single pin connectors to state-of-the-art electrical, optical and hybrid electro-optical connectors for extreme underwater environments.   AMETEK SCP Inc. has been providing quality products to both Military and Commercial customers for the past three decades. In this time numerous changes have occurred in the connector and cable industries. AMETEK SCP Inc. has also made numerous changes to keep delivering quality products to all customers. AMETEK SCP's quality assurance program was developed to meet DOD requirements as expressed in MIL-I-45208 and MIL-I-9858A and is compliant with ISO 9001 requirements. The US NAVY and many of our government contractor customers perform quality assessments at the AMETEK SCP facility in Westerly, Rhode Island at various intervals. AMETEK SCP Inc. is a supplier of Level 1 components to various Navy installations, which requires a rigorous quality program to retain this supplier status. The same rigorous quality plan will be enforced to ensure the highest quality cable assemblies are provided to customer in support of their project.

Testing

AMETEK SCP's engineers and Quality Assurance personnel will develop a test outline which will meet the requirements necessary to provide a concise, repeatable, and user friendly test package. Once developed the test outline will undergo an in-house QA process to ensure that the test objectives are fully satisfied. The outline will then be submitted to the customers technical authority for review and approval. Once approval is given our research team will gather the technical data and formulate the detailed hardware and or software necessary to complete detailed test and evaluation procedures. The draft procedure will again be subjected to the in-house QA process and then will go through the review and approval process. The redlined feedback will be incorporated into the final plan, which after a final QA review, will be submitted to the customer for distribution.   The accuracy of any test program is a direct result of the management attention, technical competence, and effort placed upon this task. Each test plan is a living document that must have the flexibility to change as the system evolves through its life cycle. A test program must not only be capable of determining production accuracy, and performance specification compliance, but it must also provide critical data needed to determine the need for upgrades. To accomplish this goal the testing process must provide clearly defined and measurable data reflective of system design operational characteristics. Additionally, the procedure must be formatted to ensure speed of test performance, quality of data gathering, and ease of use by the technician. We will utilize our extensive experience gained through years of system tests to ensure consistently exceptional test data systems are generated, maintained, revised and improved throughout the life cycle of cable system.   Accelerated life aspects of the integrity program plan Durability/hydrostatic pressure cycling design analysis procedures Test failure analysis and corrective action report (TFCAR) system Design analysis procedures to assure meeting the Specification requirements Methods for satisfying the mating and de-mating requirements Analysis, test and inspection methods to assure achievement of the interchangeability requirements

AMETEK SCP Inc.