4/85 to 10/86 – Wausaukee, Inc. Manager of Composites Engineering (and still consulting for them)- Supervised construction of two large fiberglass stacks, 23 tanks up to 3000 gals., and sonar domes for U.S. Navy’s MCM-2 & 4 ships under subcontract (N00024-83-C-2142) to Marinette Marine Corp., shipbuilder for this class. Designed, marketed, cost estimated and supervised fabrication of a large number of fiberglass and composite structural components for automotive, military truck, and industrial customers.

8/83 to 3/85 – Marinette Marine Corp. Deputy Program Manager and Project Engineer, Minesweeper-Hunter (MSH) Project. Design contract N00024-83-C-2163, for $1.25 million. Political considerations dictated that MMC’s VPO was the nominal Program manager, but Rob was the functional PM. MMC and Bell Textron were the two final selected shipyards for this fiberglass ship design and construction Program. MMC developed the MSH design from concept to contract design, using technology from license agreement with Intermarine SPA. of Sarzana, Italy. A complete fiberglass production facility was designed, with the cooperation of specialist architects and environmental engineers. Sophisticated dynamic analyses of fiberglass composite structures for hull and machinery foundations were performed for this project to meet shock and acoustic signature criteria. Rob was responsible for all engineering, budgets, cost estimating and planning for this project. A subsequent construction contract was awarded to Bell, but was cancelled and replaced with Intermarine U.S.A.’s MHC Project.

3/81 to 8/83 – Gibbs and Cox, Inc. Section Manager, (2 departments) Naval Architecture Section and Structural Engineering Section, Washington Division. Rob supervised 13 principal engineers and several other design and drafting personnel also attached to these groups.

(8/81) Minesweeper-Hunter (MSH) Concept Design – NAVSEA (Naval Sea Systems Command) Contract N00024-80-C-4507, Task# 30711 (PMS 303)- Rob did concept structural design for hull, decks, bulkheads, and deckhouse for this 600 ton all-composite ship. Three fiberglass structural configurations were developed: monocoque, transverse framed, and sandwich core, as well as one conventional wood design. 12 ft X 12 ft test panels of each structural configuration were built and explosive-charge tested underwater.

(8/83) Application of Advanced Lightweight Composites to Naval Surface Ships ($180K study)- for NAVSEA Code 05R (H. Vanderveldt) – Rob was G&C Program Manager for this joint project with Fiber Materials Inc and Bath Iron Works shipyard. It entailed structural design for shock, nuclear airblast, and vibration for topside structures for the CG-47 and DDG-51 class ships. Carbon and other composite component structural designs were developed and evaluated
for weight and cost impact under the study. A quadropod tubular mast, stack, and weapons director foundation were developed and costed to the level of contract drawings.

(7/82) DDG-51 Preliminary Structural Design – Contract #N00024-80-C-4458 Task 30799 for NAVSEA Code 3231 – Rob was G&C Program Manager for the entire Preliminary Level structural design. Hull, decks and deckhouse scantlings were developed and analyzed for sea loads, nuclear airblast and weapons effects. Topside structures, such as the phased array radar foundations, mast, stack, and illuminator and weapon director foundations were designed for shock, airblast, vibrations, and dynamic ship motions. A complete weight estimate for all SWBS 100 items was completed for the PMS400 Project Office.

(7/82 to 7/83) DDG-51 Destroyer and CG-47 Cruiser Class Topside Weight Reduction Studies – Producibility Studies – for PMS 400 under NAVSEA Contract #N00024-80-C-4458 – Several fiberglass and other composite and High-Strength, Low Alloy Steel structural design projects were completed for the surface combatant programs of PMS 400 (Project Office) over this interval. Rob was the G&C contractor Program Manager for the David Taylor Naval Ship R & D Center portions of the work under these tasks. A complete fiberglass deckhouse design was investigated for DDG-51, as well as HSLA. Shipyards and G&C participated in investigations of GRP piping and resin chocking for machinery foundations, also. Shock and vibration response of structures were investigated.

(9/82 and 4/83) Reinforced Plastic Preventive Maintenance and Repair Manual, and Inspection Manual for Fibrous Glass Reinforced Plastic, written under NAVSEA Contract #N00024-80-C-4507, task 5AO50 for Code 05E3 – These manuals were rewritten by this group under his supervision as a state of the art update of earlier MIL-HDBK navy manuals prepared by G&C.

(1982) COBRA JUDY Phased Array Radar Installation on the USNS OBSERVATION ISLAND – Subcontract to Raytheon under Air Force Contract #F-19628-82-C-0099.
Rob was Program Manager for this project, which entailed extensive ship surveys, engineering design, preparation of working drawings and cost estimate for the installation of a 100 ton phased array radar antenna upon the fourth tier of the deckhouse of an existing MARINER Class ship. Very extensive finite element computer analyses of heavy foundation structures were required for vibration and deflection checks of this extremely alignment-critical installation.

MHC-51 GRP Ship Structures Repair Manual – Rob Schofield and Bill Seeman each provided GRP composite structures damage assessment and repair expertise to the writing of a new fiberglass ship structures repair and inspection manual for this ship class, for NAVSEA. Each wrote sections and reviewed all drafts for the proposed manual.

MHC-51 Minehunter Lead Ship Shock Test – Rob participated as the fiberglass damage ship survey and repair expert under contract to the U.S. Navy’s NAVSEA engineering group for this series of underwater explosion shock tests of the lead ship of the class.
Carderock Contracts No. N00167-94-R-0008 Vacuum Assist Resin Transfer Molding of GRP composite Ship Section, and No. N00167-94-R-0071 PrePreg Fabrication of GRP Ship Section, Subcontract under SunRez Corporation, San Diego, CA. Performed structural and tooling design, materials selection, fabrication cost and tooling cost estimating, and on-site fabrication assistance for a half-scale ship section (Israeli corvette), which was built at Intermarine USA, Inc. shipyard at Savannah, GA.

DTRC Integrated Technology Deckhouse Program, Subcontract to CASDE Corp. for NAVSEA.
Consulting on structural design, fabrication techniques, bonded and bolted connections design of GRP DDG deckhouse.

MHC-51 Construction, Subcontract to Intermarine U.S.A., Subtier contract to Industrial Plastics, Wisconsin Rapids, WI. Rob did structural design of fiberglass filament wound tanks, Grade “A” shock qualification by finite element analysis, and provided assistance during fabrication. 2 shipsets built for MHC Program.

Ship Stack, U.S. Navy Contract No. N00167-88-C-0051, for David Taylor Research Center ($85K): Rob was engineering subcontractor to Hercules Aerospace Company, Magna, UT. Project was for design and fabrication of a panel-built fiberglass skin/fiberglass honeycomb cored naval destroyer ship stack structure for simulated nuclear airblast test. A large-scale test was performed under actual FAE airblast by the Government at White Sands, NM in May 1989. Structure survived intact and functional. Rob developed the structural configuration and assisted in fabrication.

MHC Contract Design, U.S. Navy Contract N00024-84-D-4013, T.I. No. 6.03.01.05, from NAVSEA, the Naval Sea Systems Command ($57K): Subcontract through J.J. McMullen Associates. Rob Schofield and Earl Zion developed material specifications and qualification test and fabrication procedures for the fiberglass fabrics and resins used in the construction of the MHC-51 Class minesweeping ships. These 184 ft., 800 ton fiberglass ships were being built with commercial specification Italian and French fiberglass and Dutch resins.
The structural materials were being procured with only supplier stock numbers and incomplete commercial performance specifications. Schofield and Zion enlisted the technical assistance of 18 U.S. fiberglass and resin companies, and developed a complete specification and qualification procedure for U.S. domestic procurement of the materials.

Intermarine U.S.A. Shipyard: Hercules Aerospace retained Schofield 1985-1990 as consultant for forming the joint venture with Intermarine Spa., assisting in locating, planning, and construction of a shipbuilding facility in the U.S. (Intermarine U.S.A., Savannah, GA), writing the proposal to build the MHC-51 Class ship, and developing future markets for composite structural components for naval surface combatant ships and submarines.