Custom tester contract for Texcel
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Texcel Technology product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Sep 4, 2002
Texcel Technology has won a GBP 100,000 order from Thales Defence to design and build military test sets for a naval avionics application.
Texcel Technology has won a GBP 100,000 order from Thales Defence to design and build military test sets for a naval avionics application.
The Crayford EMS specialist is using a COTS approach to reduce weight and simplify field upgrades, while combining the functions of two existing equipments into a single system.
A critical aspect of the contract is Texcel's ability to combine mechanical, electrical and electronic design with small batch manufacturing, since developing a microcontroller-based test set for a tough sea-going environment presented some major electromechanical challenges.
The main power connection is required to make both 115V AC and 48V DC connections at high power (up to 200A), and to meet the requirements of operation at sea, a total insertion force of 25kg is needed.
To simplify the connection process, Texcel's mechanical designers created a special mating system, which not only reduces operating forces to manageable levels, but also ensures the sequenced connection and disconnection of individual pins.
Similarly, custom captive clamps were developed to ensure that the fixings for critical safety earthing straps could not be lost.
In place of traditional hand wiring, much of the design uses a special high-current printed circuit board, which helps reduce the weight of the system by up to 20%.
The use of a laminated front panel overlay, proven on many of Texcel's commercial projects, not only enables improved usability for the test set through the use of colour coordination and colour coding, but also is critical in the meeting of the IP51 environmental requirements needed in such a harsh environment.
Special adhesives and high abrasion resistance ensure that the panel will remain readable, easy to clean, and secure for the life of the equipment.
The test procedure is implemented as custom embedded software, enabling Texcel engineers not only to capture the customer's current test strategy, but also enabling subsequent field upgrades to be straightforward.
Texcel's software also provides for the testing of all cables, as well as providing a system self-test mode for maximum confidence in the field.
With 19 special cables required per test set, Texcel's complete EMS service even included the custom design of a special cable bag to ensure that the complete set of cables could easily be deployed onboard.
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