Aircraft circuit protection: A review of 5 technologies

April 29, 2014 Michael Traskos

Two weeks ago we posted a blog on the selection process for circuit protection/wire pairs. Today, we produce a grid to help you understand common aircraft circuit protection types that can be found on aircraft. The five device types talked about here are the thermal circuit protection, fuse, magnetic circuit protection, Arc Fault Circuit Breaker […] Read more

270VDC arcing in aircraft wiring

April 15, 2014 Michael Traskos

In a recent presentation to the SAE at the biannual meeting, Lectromec presented a summary of the work that was performed by several companies and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) last summer. These tests were performed at the FAA’s Technical Center in Atlantic City on 270VDC in aircraft wiring. There were four test objectives: Perform […] Read more

7-step process for aircraft wire size and circuit protection selection

April 14, 2014 Michael Traskos

Sometimes the design guidance that is a couple of decades old is still valid. The following flowchart is from the NASA Technical Memorandum 102179 – 1991. The chart provides a flow for the design considerations for circuit protection, starting with determining the current need and ending with the implementation of the system. The 7 steps […] Read more

What you missed from the SAE meeting regarding aircraft wire testing

April 10, 2014 Michael Traskos

If you had other business commitments and couldn’t make the recent SAE 8A/D meeting this week that included topics related to aircraft wire testing, we have put together a quick summary from the committee meetings. RoHS Compliance The Reduction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) has been something the aerospace industry has been struggling to comply with […] Read more

The “Big 3” aircraft wire system degradation assessment options

April 9, 2014 Michael Traskos

If you have concerns about aircraft wire system degradation and need to assess the condition of an aircraft’s wire system, there are several options. For those looking for opens and shorts type faults, HiPot and/or Time Domain Relectometer (TDR) equipment are great options. To determine the impact of wire problems with the fleet, maintenance logs […] Read more

Aerospace electrical systems news

April 4, 2014 Michael Traskos

The AEROSPACE Electrical Systems Expo took place on April 1 – 3, 2014 in Long Beach California and drew the usual suspects. There was a good representation from all parts of the aerospace electrical systems field and the supporting vendors. Overall, the year-to-year technology innovations appear to be more of an evolutionary improvement rather revolutionary […] Read more

7 considerations for aircraft wire separation

March 30, 2014 Michael Traskos

The development of a safe, reliable, and easy to maintain Electrical Wire Interconnection System (EWIS) is a challenging task. The considerations range from selecting each EWIS component, to matching the load and Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) requirements of the connected devices, to ensuring your design can maintain performance across multiple zone environments. EWIS design takes a […] Read more

2 EWIS insights from a presentation at the AIAA conference

March 23, 2014 Michael Traskos

Th 51st AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference was held on January 2010 and included presentations of a wide range of technical papers. From the perspective of EWIS, authors McCabe and Cyphers reported on A Study of Over-Current Protection, Electrical Arcing, and Fire Protection. Their research objective was to gather data for ballistic threats […] Read more

Aircraft EWIS high voltage testing considerations

March 21, 2014 Michael Traskos

There are two factors that need to be considered when using aerospace wires/cables for higher voltage systems: (1) Determining the long-term insulation life impacts of high voltage utilization, and (2) the impact that high voltage testers may have through repeat high potential testing. In this article we will focus on the second factor. Read more

EWIS regulatory compliance with 25.1707, Part VII

February 28, 2014 Michael Traskos

This is the final article on the series devoted to the FAA regulation 25.1707 on EWIS separation. The previous six articles in this series are listed below: Jan 20, 2014 Part I: Damage assessment for 25.1707 Jan 28, 2014 Part II : EMI compliance in 25.1707 Feb 7, 2014 Part III: Heavy Current Cables in […] Read more

By: Michael Traskos