A manufacturer of structural aircraft components invited Helipebs to design and manufacture a range of hydraulic cylinders for use in a test frame to fatigue test an aircraft wing.
The challenge
The hydraulic cylinders had to be designed to meet specified tensile and compressive loads and fit within a designated space. Each hydraulic cylinder required a load cell, position transducer, servo valve and control valves. The control valves had to limit the maximum load applied by each cylinder and control the rate the loading was released in the event of the test being aborted.
Our solution
Using nearly 50 years of experience, Helipebs selected equipment that had a proven track record for reliability and accuracy. We designed the control valves servo valves to fit inside a manifold to make the design as compact as possible and the cylinders were sized to meet the required loads. The position transducers were fitted internally and wired to terminal boxes, mounted onto the cylinder. The load cells were attached to the cylinder rods with locking collars to allow the load cells to be pre-tensioned.
The hydraulic cylinder designs were modelled using our Solidworks design toolset. Throughout the design phase, models were sent to the customer to ensure they could be easily installed and that the mounting arrangements aligned with those on the customer’s framework.
Helipebs also designed test equipment to enable the abort features to be accurately set. This prevented damage to the test wing which could have resulted if the control valves had not been “preset”.
Key points
- Helipebs engineers worked alongside the customers engineers throughout the design phase, ensuring that all necessary safety features were incorporated.
- Accurate models were supplied to the customer to make sure the equipment fitted within the allocated space and could be easily installed and maintained. This saved the customer time as they could easily be used within the overall assembly.
- The manifold blocks which incorporated the control valves were designed inhouse.
- As all hydraulic cylinders had all been fully tested, set and flushed to the relevant cleanliness, the equipment could be installed directly into the framework saving time in building the rig.
