| Aircraft tyre and
brake test machines are required to reproduce the
short bursts of very high energy dissipation
which are experienced during aircraft landing as
the brakes are applied. The rate of energy input
to the brake assembly required is considerable,
and a cost effective way of achieving this is to
use a set of steel discs which can be coupled to
the main road-wheel, to simulate different
aircraft weights. The discs are coupled to the
shaft while the system is stationery, the number
of discs required being determined by the level
of energy required to be input to the brake
assembly. The road-wheel and inertia discs are
then accelerated up to the required landing
speed, the test assembly is landed and the drive
motor set to free-wheel. At this point the brakes
are applied, and the tyre/wheel/brake assembly
will then absorb the energy stored in the
rotating inertia. Typically a large inertia disc
for such an application could weigh up to 25
tons. The
illustration shows an automatic handling system
for inertia discs supplied by Exign Technology.
The system enables the swift attachment and
removal of discs to achieve high machine utility.
It incorporates sophisticated alignment features
to achieve concentricity and sensors to confirm
that each disc is either locked on the shaft or
is securely stowed in the removed position.
A quality
solution for an extremely demanding application.
|
|
|
