Visitors to the IMS 2015 show floor will have the opportunity to see W.L. Gore & Associate’s new Cable Installation Simulator in action. Because nearly one-third of cable failures occur during installation, this is a crucial risk factor to minimize. Damaged airframe assemblies can lead to compromised signal integrity and failures over time, as well as additional testing, maintenance and replacement costs.
Gore's Cable Installation Simulator replicates the conditions a cable assembly experiences while being routed during installation in an aircraft. The device uses four mandrels to simulate routing an assembly around the internal structure of an airframe. The mandrels replicate minimum bend radius (MBR) conditions that the assembly will encounter in an aircraft.
Several routing guides are used to induce torque into the assembly as it is pulled through the simulator. Next, the assembly is pulled through an abrasion bar to simulate routing across sharp edges or through access holes in the airframe structure.
After being fed through the Installation Simulator, the assembly is ready for testing. The assembly is connected to a vector network analyzer (VNA) to test the insertion loss and VSWR, and the results are compared to the baseline results of the assembly tested prior to installation. Depending on the results of the test, the assembly may be routed through the simulator multiple times and re-tested to verify its durability.
Live demos of the Cable Installation Simulator will take place at Gore’s IMS booth (No. 1042) throughout the show week. In addition, the firm’s Chris Erickson will be presenting his paper, “Understanding and Improving Microwave Cable Performance in Aircraft and Land Vehicles, on Thursday, May 21 (Booth No. 3147).