Canted-coil springs used in Hubble repair
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Bal Seal Engineering product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Jul 16, 2009
Bal Seal Engineering's canted-coil springs have been used in a special set of tools that were used by astronauts on the latest mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
The company's small, precision-engineered springs played an important role in several of the repair operations conducted during 'Servicing Mission Four', NASA's final voyage from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, to the orbiting telescope.
One of the more important tools employing Bal Seal springs for grounding functions during repairs was a 'fastener capture plate', designed by engineers at Goddard Space Center for NASA.
This plate, which was fitted precisely over a panel covering a failed electronics card, enabled astronauts to remove and retain 111 tiny screws without losing them or allowing them to float into the telescope where they could have caused serious and costly damage.
Springs in the plate connection points grounded the unit to the Hubble.
Another critical piece of hardware on the Hubble repair mission was a Cardlok Manipulation Tool, or CMT designed for Goddard and NASA by Alliant Techsystems.
Inside the CMT, a low-speed hand tool resembling a long Allen wrench, a beryllium-copper Bal Seal spring was used to provide electrical grounding and ensure smooth rotary motion.
Hans Raven, an ATK engineer who worked with a team to design the CMT and more than 100 other tools for the final Hubble repair mission, said he selected a Bal Seal spring after observing its use in other tool applications.
He said: 'I was looking for a way to allow the CMT to rotate while efficiently grounding the rotating portion to the shaft.
'I didn't want to overcomplicate things by using a ball bearing, and when I saw the Bal Seal spring, a light bulb went off.
'The multi-point coil contact provided exceptional grounding - zero resistance across the path.
'It was the ideal solution for this tool.'.
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