P.I.P. BRANCH PRESERVES NAVY STORES AT AUCKLAND

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29058, 21 November 1959, Page 11

P.I.P. BRANCH PRESERVES NAVY STORES AT AUCKLAND

Not long ago a set of diesel engine pistons, which had been sitting on a shelf in a naval store for 11 years, were issued for use, says a Royal New Zealand Navy news release. The tough protective plastic coat was stripped off and the pistons emerged, clean, shining, ready for immediate use, and, incidentally, a tribute to the unusual organisation which had prepared them so successfully for storage. The organisation is known as the P.I.P, branch of the Royal New Zealand Navy’s naval store on Auckland’s North Shore. P.I.P. stands for the branch’s purpose —the preservation, identification and packaging of stores. The method it employs is believed to be without equal in Australia or New Zealand.

The branch’s aim is simple. It is so to prepare stores that they will remain in perfect condition almost indefinitely and yet will remain available to issue and immediate use. Its record is impressive. It was founded 15 years ago and much of its early effort was spent in developing its method, yet it has now packaged and preserved more than 300,000 items ranging from gun barrels to cap ribbons, and from blankets to needles. All are sealed away, mainly in plastic; in some cases jji a near-vacuum, in others in carefully dried air. The value of the equipment thus protected against deterioration is Beyond calculation. Complete plotting tables are sealed; they cost close to £15,000. Similarly protected are radar sets, hundreds of gun mountings, gun barrels and even six cylinder diesel engines with coupled generating plants. Saving in Space The saving in space is almost as valuable as that in upkeep cost. Blankets are placed in pairs in plastic envelopes, and the air exhausted. The result is a board-hard slab, sealed against moths, silverfish and other pests, and one quarter the size of the original. It will remain compressed for years without damage. When they are needed, the envelope can be slit and the blankets shaken to restore them to their original fluffiness. The same system is £eing applied to certain dry foods, principally sugar, flour and dried fruits. Tests are not yet complete, but it is already known that compressed sugar will keep at least two years. When the Antarctic support ship, H.M.N.Z.S. Endeavour, goes south again "this summer she will probably take a quantity for test. The impact of the branch is also felt on medical stores. Although they may never need them ships must carry a wide range of surgical instruments. Because much of the service is tropical, deterioration of unprotected metal is inevitable and instruments become unusable in store, and must be replaced. Now, however, P.I.P. immerses them in plastic. They remain protected and sterile until they are actually needed.

All this is done by a nine-man staff led by Mr F. Mickleboro’ugh, who joined the Naval Store organisation in 1945 after war service with the Royal Corps of Signals. In 1947 he transferred to the P.I.P. section which had been formed two years before by Mr N. S.‘ Davies. When ill-health

forced Mr Davies’s retirement, Mr Mickleborough took over as supervisor. The branch works to a threestage packaging system. First the item must be cleaned. This may include the elimination of such pests as borer in wood, or silverfish in clothing. It certainly involves the removal of all fingerprints since perspiration leaves a salt residue which will eventually cause corrosion. Next all forms of corrosion are removed and rust neutralised by special treatment. Finally the method of protection is selected. Small items may be dipped into wax at 400 degrees. This dries rapidly to a hard film which retains the shape of the item inside and enables it to be easily identified. In some cases soft plastic is used, in others cartons. Large items, such as diesel engines, are stored by reducing the relative humidity of the air in contact with them to below 60 degrees, the point at which deterioration begins. This is done by applying a muslin coat and then a "shrinking coat” of plastic which forms tightly about the store. A window is cut and silica gel, to absorb moisture, is placed inside. If the gel is renewed every five years the item should remain protected for at least 10 and probably 20 years. s To ensure that the best method is employed the branch maintains a complete test system. In this, any conditions the package is likely to face in its naval career can be duplicated. There is a cold tank which goes down to 72 degrees below freezing. Naval stores may one day be placed where'the temperatures go lower but not in the foreseeable future. There is an altitude tank in which packages can be subjected to simulated flights at higher than 40,000 feet. A humidity tank reproduces a full range of tropical humidity including a series of heavy dews; a rain tank can produce the effect of weeks of torrential rain in hours, and there is, naturally, an immersion tank to test the packages reaction to water.