Woven webbing materials for aerospace applications

Woven webbing for aerospace and aviation applications include specialized narrow fabrics, 2D and 3D thermoset and thermoplastic fabrics, and E-Webbings narrow woven fabrics. The products meet strength requirements for structural components.

The fabrics’ strong, lightweight webbing can reduce material costs, lower fuel use, and increase safety. Engineered designs and special manufacturing processes can be modified to meet customer needs.

Woven webbing material can be found in the International Space Station and was used as a structural member on the landing system for NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. The designs use enhanced weaving technologies and materials woven from high-performance fibers such as Kevlar, Technora, Vectran, Zylon, and ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE).

www.ballyribbon.com

Baldor Electric now ABB

ABB has integrated the Baldor Electric Co. name into its global ABB brand as a part of its Next Level strategy, which includes harmonizing different ABB-owned brands under the global ABB master brand.

As ABB, the organization will continue to manufacture, design, and market Baldor-Reliance motor brands and Dodge mechanical power transmission products from 15 U.S. manufacturing locations. The organization will continue to support ABB’s U.S. motors and generators business unit, including ABB branded IEC motors, large AC motors, generators, and related services from the motors, generators, and mechanical business headquarters in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

In addition to accessing the same local manufacturing, inventory, and customer service, customers will rely on global support, ABB Ability digital technology, and innovation.

ABB
www.new.abb.com

Wireless, web-based access control

The EA-BT Bluetooth Controller allows smart phones and other Bluetooth-enabled devices to serve as credentials for wirelessly actuating electronic locks. Virtual keys are sent wirelessly to a smart device via a remote web portal. The device can read a smartphone from 30ft away.

The system provides wireless control and monitoring of intelligent locks without having to connect to a network, or install, manage, and maintain software. With intelligent electronic locking solutions, the controller provides a concealed physical security solution using Bluetooth LE for access, and a remote web portal for credential management and audit trail monitoring.

Virtual keys can be assigned and managed with the VIZpin application, providing a secure, cloud-based platform for remote management of controller access.

www.southco.com

Miniature voice coil motor

Smaller in diameter than a U.S. quarter, the miniature linear voice coil motor, LVCM-019-016-02, has a high force-to-size ratio and produces 8.9oz (2.5N) of continuous force and 28.0oz (7.8N) of peak force in a 0.750" diameter x 0.94" length (19.1mm x 23.8mm). The motor has zero cogging and features accuracy, and repeatability to less than 1µm when operated in a closed loop as a DC servo motor. This clean, quiet, efficient, low inertia, high acceleration, miniature voice coil motor is suitable for applications such as pick-and-place, testing, laser steering, laser speckle reduction, mirror positioning, scanning, oscillation, and switching.

The motor has a stroke length of 0.25" (6.4mm) and can be added to new or existing applications using 8-32 UNC-2B mounting holes.

www.moticont.com

Cartesian motion solution

The Festo Motion Control Package (FMCP) – a control system for coordinated motion of up to six axes for pick-and-place and other high speed, precision Cartesian robotic applications – is prewired and ready-to-install. It provides the kinematics for H-portal, T-portal, 2D, and 3D Festo standard gantry systems. Users can configure Cartesian motion applications using function blocks, without specialized programming knowledge. Compatible with leading control architectures, the Full Edition cabinet houses up to six drives; the Compact Edition houses up to three drives.

The FMCP also can be used for end-of-arm-tooling. By including an IO-Link connection, the FMCP can control eight external digital inputs and eight digital outputs within the standard function block.

Festo
www.festo.us

Fiber optic cable splicing

The Boeing Commercial Aircraft Co. and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have qualified Aurora Optics’ MiniMod fusion splicing kit and cable restorations for splicing ruggedized simplex fiber optic cables on aircraft for production and repair.

Aurora’s fusion splicing and cable restoration process has now been released in the latest revision of the Boeing 787 standard wiring practices manual (SWPM). In addition, the splice and cable restoration technology has been qualified on the 767 and KC-46 and is being considered for the 747 and 777 aircraft.

Following a formal Qualification Test Plan, Aurora routinely demonstrated mean cable splice losses under 0.05dB, better than Boeing’s requirement. Fusion splices, functionally equivalent to uncut fiber, are very stable under environmental stresses. In all tests the Aurora spliced/cable restorations typically varied in loss by no more than 0.05dB (see sidebar for test details).

Aurora Optics Inc.
www.aurora-optics.com

Federal Aviation Administration
www.faa.gov