Materials Handling & Extraction

In the context of naval warfare, H.L. Hunley changed the world.  Its builders' innovative use of materials, design and manufacturing techniques resulted in the world's first successful attack submarine.

The Southwest Research Institute Split-Hopkinson Pressure Bar apparatus is a mechanical test instrument used to characterize the dynamic response of materials at high strain rates (typical of impacts and explosions).

The apparatus, based on devices invented by Bertram Hopkinson and Herbert Kolsky, was developed at SwRI in 1962 by Dr. Ulric Lindholm. Initially created to evaluate the behavior of metals under various conditions, the SwRI Split-Hopkinson Pressure Bar has since been applied to a wide range of materials.

The world's first high-speed, dockside container-handling cranes reduced ship turnaround time from three weeks to eighteen hours. They became the model and set the standard for future designs worldwide. In service January 7, 1959, the A-frame cranes built at Encinal Terminals in Alameda, California, were designed to move large quantities of products with less handling, less damage, and less pilferage. Under the leadership of C. Dean Ramsden, P.E., the Pacific Coast Engineering Company (PACECO Inc.) met performance specifications developed by the Matson Navigation Company.

The largest mine hoist in the world, it serves the two incline skipways of Shaft No. 2, almost 9,300 feet long. The overhead winding drum has a diameter of 30 feet, of which the cylindrical center section is 10 feet long. The two 10-foot long end sections taper down to a 15-foot diameter. Wire hoisting ropes (almost 27 tons) could be wound onto a small end of the cylindrical drum as the other rope unwound from the cylindrical section.