Visual inspection of electrical wiring for aircraft: A quick guide, Part III

April 9, 2012 Michael Traskos

This article is part of Lectromec’s visual inspection series discussion and focuses on the issues that need to be considered when inspecting splices in harnesses. Read more

Visual inspection of electrical wiring for aircraft: A quick guide, Part II

March 15, 2012 Michael Traskos

This is intended as a quick guide for those performing visual inspection of electrical wiring for aerospace. There is more that needs to be considered than what is covered in this article, but hopefully this can be used as a starting point. Each of the items discussed will be addressed in greater detail during this […] Read more

Visual inspection of electrical wiring for aircraft: A quick guide, Part I

February 15, 2012 Michael Traskos

This is the first of a three-part series of articles that go through a complete visual inspection to examine all the parts of an aircraft’s electrical wire interconnection system (EWIS). Read more

Implications of circuit breakers and wire size for wire systems

June 27, 2011 Michael Traskos

Circuit breakers are designed to activate (open the circuit) when the electrical current is in excess of the device rating. This is done to protect both the electrical device and the wiring. As such, it is important to size the circuit breaker to meet the electrical needs of the circuit as well as prevent overheating and damage to the wiring. This article lists the factors that affect the wire/circuit breaker selection. Read more

ETFE vs XL-ETFE vs PTFE: What’s best for wire circuit protection?

April 5, 2011 Michael Traskos

One reader of the blog asked Lectromec to compare products for wire circuit protection. A couple of the common wire insulations on the market are based on the PTFE and ETFE polymers. PTFE (DuPont trade name Teflon®) is a fluorocarbon and is constructed with carbon and fluorine atoms, whereas ETFE is a carbon, fluorine, and […] Read more

Aircraft wire selection, harness protection devices, and aircraft wire systems topic Q&A

November 7, 2008 Lectromec Team

Answering Reader Mail Third Quarter 2008 November 7, 2008 From time to time, I get some basic questions about aircraft wire systems. To accommodate this, I have answered some of these questions and have posted the responses below. What are some of the steps that exist which people should take when selecting wire? First and […] Read more

Use of aircraft “shelf wire” and aircraft wire life projection

May 26, 2008 Lectromec Team

Suppose that your customer wants to know if the wiring in the cables, harnesses, or devices that your company produced is good. What if they have questions about aircraft wire life projection. Perhaps the cable that you used was a MIL-spec wire, but had been on the shelf or in the manufacturing plant for a number […] Read more

Damage at a distance on aircraft wire systems

August 1, 2007 Lectromec Team

What is the effective distance in wire systems that electrical arcing can cause? Both lab tests and in-service incidents have shown that arcing is hot enough to cause significant damage when in direct contact with an object, but there is far less information on the damage that can be caused at a distance. Read more

When applied to aircraft wire systems technology, what is “delamination”?

January 1, 2007 Lectromec Team

Some failure mechanisms in aircraft wire systems technology are easy to find. Among the failure mechanisms faced by a wire, one is often overlooked: the failure of the layer to layer bond of wrapped wire insulation. When the bonding material fails to hold together the successive wraps of insulation, this is known as delamination. The basic construction […] Read more

Chemical formulas and structures for wire systems

December 18, 2006 Lectromec Team

Elemental abbreviations that may be used for wire systems C = carbon H = hydrogen Cl = chlorine N = nitrogen F = fluorine O = oxygen Structure I Structure II Structure III Structure IV Structure V […] Read more

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