European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 12, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday. April 12. 1987 the stars and stripes Page 9 faulty grenade casings topple firm Plant s bankruptcy costs . Millions . I. A defective grenade casings that Wen i undetected Enlil they were blamed for it writs of Assembly line explosions have forced a munitions Plant Inin bankruptcy and Cost he Federal government $27 million. The . Army says More than 20 million defective casings were produced by Polo Ron products of blooms Burg inc., despite the presence in the factory of government and company Quality control officials How asks an army spokesman did at of those go Tyr court proceedings and the efforts of Pentagon investigators May come up with answers. I Soloron an ordnance manufacturer for the . Army for nearly id years abruptly closed its Plant three Days before Christmas last year putting 280 peo ple out of work. The company is now in chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings which protects it from creditors until a re payment plan can be devised. But at a March 11 hearing in . Bankruptcy court in Wilkes Barre the company s lawyer said there was virtually no Hope left of saying the firm. It owes $31 million and has Only 36.5 million in assets. The Plant produced grenade casing for use in club Ter bombs literally clusters of grenades. The company received $10 million in 1977 to set up the Plant and test produce 300,000 casings to show it could satisfy army contracts said Rev aporta spokes Man for the army Materiel come in Alexandria a. Its first contract came in 1981, and Over the years a Toron received $77,7 million to produce nearly 83 million grenade casings for the army Aponte said. Polo Ron Quality control specialists along with one to three full time government inspectors were on hand to make sure the casings met army specifications. Until 1984, Polo Ron s grenades seemed acceptable. Then an unusually High number of explosions at army munitions plants were traced to Pothron. The blasts occurred when explosive powder was pressed Mubarak s party loses 51 seats Cairo Egypt up president Hosni Mubarak s ruling party Friday suffered losses in parliamentary elections that produced the largest and most diversified opposition in More than three decades. The results of monday s elections announced Early Friday gave the ruling National democratic party 338 out of 448 elected scats in the new parliament a loss of 51 scats. But the Victory assured the nip of More than the two thirds majority it needs to pass crucial legislation. Opposition panics collectively won 96 seals nearly 50 percent More than the last elections in i98j making them the strongest and broadest opposition since the 1952 revolution. Although the opposition is in no Posi Tion to threaten government policy observers say that livelier debate can be expected on for Czine Egypt s peace treaty with Israel demanded by All of the opposition. Into inc Riecl Ulley grenade casing which could not withstand the pressure Aponte Siirid no one was injured in the explosions hut they caused about $60.000 in damage find shut Down production lint s far eight hours each time pc into wind. The government notified Polo Ron of the problem in october 1984 and began rejecting casings. It ordered the company to cease production in october 19x5 and did so again in january 1986 after learning the company had disregarded the order according to court documents. Last june the army sought a refund from 1 Oltron for More than 20 million defective casing produced under contracts awarded in 1983 and 1984, the army says it paid $23.8 million for those Cas Ings and wants the Money Back according to bankruptcy court documents an additional $3.1 million is listed As owed to the . States army armament munitions and chemical command at Rock Island lit., for undelivered goods. The grenade bodies procured from Polo Ron products arc so defective and in such a Large Quantity As to constitute a Gross mistake amounting to fraud a june14 letter from army contracting officer Janice Isenberg said. Aponte said that phrase was meant to indicate that somebody made so Many mistakes that you would think they were trying to do it deliberately but that docs not infer imply or otherwise say they perpetrated a  nonetheless the Case and claims by Laid off workers that Quality control inspectors were negligent have attracted the attention of the Pentagon s defense Crimi Nal investigative service. Investigators Are determining whether a criminal investigation should be begun said Bruce Kerens Spe Cial agent i n charge of the Agency s Chester Field office. Polo Ron s Parent company a Caturi inc. Of Bing Hamton . Has said it was not aware of these verely damaged relationship with the government until March i �r6. That statement came in a Caluri s response to a Taw. Suit filed against it by a David Hann Niu Polo ran s Are Sipioni from 1974 to May 9�f. Hit Nania who alleged he was unlawfully dismissed declined to com ment. A Caluri has counter such. New management got into place june i. And inc first thing we gel hit with was this said Douglas o. Parker Polo Ron s vice president for finance. So our question was what problem " Parker said the company tried to work with the army even halting production in july in order to perfect the process what the company Learned he said was that it could make inc grenades to the army s satisfaction but not profitably. Polo Ron lost $5 million in 1986, Parker told inc bankruptcy court. The question investigators must answer is who was responsible for so Many defective grenade casings com ing out of he Plant. Inspectors working for inc defense contract administration services Region whose responsibility it is to make sure All government contractors a acct specifications were following army guidelines spokesman John Poiesz said from his Philadelphia office. The people at the Plant As far As i know were measuring and inspecting against the specifications they were Given by the army. There seems to be a question Aslo whether techniques being used were effective Poiesz said. Now if there was something wrong in what was being done then we have to go bade to the original source and that is the  pome acknowledged that there was a Small imperfection on a Chart inspectors used to compare to Oron grenades with Model specifications. But the diameters on the grenades were Way off beyond the slight imperfections on the Chart he said. The difference should have been easily seen he con ceded. That has t been determined How did All of those get by the inspectors Aponte said. We can Only say they got  schoolchildren in Beijing in fume a and facial exercises in the tic Compani eyes on Good vision ment of Musie during a pause Between classes. The practice n part of the daily routine in Many chinese schools in in tended to prevent no an if Hli a Ness. Firm gets of for commercial rocket launches Washington up Nasa for Mally gave general dynamics Permis Sion to Market and launch the company s Allai Centaur rockets on a Coli Iii a dial basis in a move aimed a spurring the rebirth of a private sector launch Indus try officials said Friday in the to Rel agreement of its kind the National aeronautics and space administration transferred authority to in neral dynamics space systems division of san Diego calif., Louw Nasa can trolled facilities fur building and Hunch ing the Workhorse Atlas a i i Luurs. The Agency currently has one Atlas Centaur left in its inventory. A launch March 26 ended in failure when the rocket careened off course but investigators suspect lightning played .1 role in the failure As opposed to any mechanical malfunctions. I n the Wake oblast i car s challenger disaster in a idyll Krugan banned must Conni inc dal satellites from future shuttle lights to Promuto private sector launch services using  rockets. Lizul the nation s expendable rocket program had been Lulu wed i die out in the 1970s when the shuttle was declared America i Premier launch vehicle. Now aerospace companies Are scram bling Yocupi Lulish on a potentially lucrative Market of 44 commercial payloads scheduled for shuttle launch prior to challenger s demise Only about 15 can now expect a ride on Nasa s manned spaceships