Thermals for Avionic Applications
The safety and redundancy requirements of modern aircraft are one of the many area’s that drive the use of advanced mechanical thermal switches like CPI Thermals. It turns out that while cheap sensors and microcontrollers are a fair solution to many non-critical monintoring apps, the heavy lifting of safe temperature detection is often deffered to one of CPI’s three lines of thermal switches.
The key reasons for this have to do with the robust nature of a thermocouple based solution (particularly CPI’s) and the completely standalone nature of the solution. A local switch closure using our thermals requires no signal interpretation by a complex microprocessor = more things that can go wrong. The extreme reliability of CPI thermal detection around the set point can activate or deactivate systems directly and provide immediate response to hazardous thermal conditions even when other systems have failed.
CPI Thermal Families Used in Aircraft
CPI offers three lines of thermal switches, covering a detection range from -40F to 1750F depending on the application. These thermals come in a variety of form factors depending on need and if nothing off the shelf suits you there is always CPI custom solutions.
A short overview of our switch families is shown below
Bimetallic snap disc technology is reliable in high vibration environments. Single or dual setpoints. 5A resistive, 3A inductive
Compact package, tight specs plus high temperature capability. Bimetallic strip technology with slow make & break contacts
Utra-High Temperature Set point capability with quick response. Hysterisis less than 5F. Options for Hermetically sealed designs
Applications for CPI Thermals
CPI Thermals solve tough problems in temperature detection and mitigation in applications all over the aircraft.
Application
ECS Bleed air O/T
Coolant System O/T
Engine Fire Detection
Engine Anti-Icing Syst
Environmental Control
Oxygen Generation
Starter System
Engine Hydraulics O/T
APU oil O/T
General Fire Detection
Gearbox Oil O/T
Switch Family
Rod & Tube
PlugStat
Rod & Tube
PlugStat
PlugStat
PlugStat
PlugStat
Rod & Tube
PlugStat
Rod & Tube
PlugStat
Switch Model
X1030, X2019
L1014
X2020
M100-2
M2 Various
M2102
X2004
AD059, AD065, AD192
M2002
M2146
L1007, L1015
Aircraft Type
Learjet L45, P1 Patrol
MD500 Series Chopper
Orion
Citation 5
747, 737, DHC7, S-76
E-2D
VH-60
747, Chinook (234)
S-76 Blackhawk
Twin Otter, Various
A109, P109
CPI Thermals Have a Lot of Unhappy Customers
The truth is that a lot of our business comes from engineers who become unhappy with their present source for thermal controls. Whether that’s because they don’t work, don’t work reliably, or they become an unreliable source of supply, they usually end up at our doorstep. The fact that all our parts are “made in the USA” and that we’ve been manufacturing and improving thermal switches for over 75 years, doesn’t hurt either.
Comments
Post a Comment