Product category: Design and Development Software
News Release from: IHS Engineering | Subject: CatalogXpress
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 27 July 2001

Online database cuts time
to spec satellite parts

Implementing a new electronic components database is helping Orbital Sciences reduce the time needed to spec out 500 critical power supply components for a new satellite from three weeks to one

Implementing a new electronic components database is helping Orbital Sciences Corporation reduce the time needed to spec out 500 critical power supply components for a new satellite from three weeks to one. In the past, the product engineer responsible for analogue components would be required to search through paper catalogues, call vendors and request datasheets in order to get the information needed to select the right parts.

In the last few months, engineers at the firm have begun using a new components database that allows them to search by part number, manufacturer or description to locate matching components.

For each component, they can download a detailed data sheet that provides reliability testing results and other information necessary to determine if the part will meet the requirements of the application.

"Specifying components used to occupy a large part of the time required to validate space-qualified parts", said Kevin Runge, Product Engineer for Orbital Sciences in Dulles, Virginia.

"The time saved by the new database frees me up to spend considerably more time on my other responsibilities, primarily managing and implementing the analogue systems of the satellite", he added.

Orbital is a space and information systems company that designs, manufactures, operates and markets a broad range of affordable space infrastructure systems, satellite access products and satellite services, earth imaging and other information services.

Satellite products and services include satellites and other space systems, launch vehicles, electronics and sensors, satellite ground systems and land information services, satellite-based navigation and communications products, and satellite-delivered communications.

As one of the largest space technology and satellite services companies in the world, Orbital employs approximately 5500 people at major facilities in the United States, Canada and several locations abroad.

The company provides all the elements of a complete, end-to-end space system - from manufacturing satellites to building and operating launch vehicles to developing the ground-based networks that collect and process satellite data - exploiting the advantages of horizontal integration across all of its primary technologies.

Orbital uses these technologies to develop satellite-based networks that serve the world's growing demand for information in the areas of narrowband wireless data communications, high- and medium-resolution earth imagery and driver information, and navigation services.

Runge is responsible for the power subsystem of the satellite, the analogue circuitry, typically contained on 10 or so printed circuit boards, that condition the current generated by the solar arrays to operate the satellite and charge the batteries from which it operates when it is not receiving sunlight.

Typically, one or two design engineers are responsible for developing the circuitry on each card.

The cards collectively end up containing about 5000 parts, such as integrated circuits, transistors, diodes, resistors, capacitors etc.

For a typical satellite, something on the order of 90% of these parts will be carried over from previous designs.

The other 500 or so parts need to be specified specially for the project.

One of Runge's responsibilities is assisting the parts engineering department identify sources of parts that meet the requirements of the application.

While the components used in satellites obviously need to be highly reliable - replacement is, of course, impossible - cost is also an issue.

For that reason, Runge will typically provide three or four alternatives including all relevant specifications and provides them to the design engineer who makes the final decision.

In the past, this was a difficult and labour-intensive task.

"First I would check the catalogues that we have in our office", Runge said.

"It often took a considerable amount of time to just locate the items I was looking for.

Also, the catalogues generally don't contain the detailed technical information that we need to determine whether or not a certain part will meet our requirements.

This means that I had to call the manufacturer or distributor and ask them to send the information.

Naturally, the people that we talk to, assuming that we are able to reach someone, have other things to do so it could take a day or two to provide the information".

Runge went on to comment: "Another part of the puzzle that took time was obtaining the military specifications for the part.

While most of the components we spec don't have to meet those requirements, knowing what they are is helpful in ensuring that the parts we select are rugged enough to do the job.

Getting the spec often required calling several different people in the government and getting passed around several times until I found the right person.

The net result was that it could easily take several days to get the complete information for a single part.

Of course, it's possible to work on more than one part at a time.

But the amount of time involved was enough that it detracted from my numerous other responsibilities".

For these reasons, Runge was one of the engineers that pioneered the use of a new online service used at Orbital Science.

The database service, CatalogXpress from IHS Engineering, Denver, Colorado, is a comprehensive collection of electronics component information sources that allows engineers to find complete information on products and components in a single search.

The product contains information on the parts produced by 16,000 of the world's top manufacturers, making it easy to find just about any part requirements.

Model numbers and industrial and military specification numbers are also indexed, making it easy to find manufacturers who conform to necessary standards.

The database also provides quick access to a sister product that provides the complete text of the original standards.

It also includes complete catalogue pages and datasheets giving users access to all of the information required to specify a component.

The database can be full-text searched by keyword or manufacturers name and its search engine uses a proprietary 840,000-term technical thesaurus that enables precise searches without using exact terms.

Manufacturers do not have to pay to be included in CatalogXpress, so it is far more comprehensive than similar services that charge for listings.

And because CatalogXpress doesn't accept advertising from parts manufactures, it provides independent and unbiased search results.

Runge discovered that the new service greatly reduced the time required to find specific components.

"If I have a part number or even a partial part number", Runge said.

"I usually search on it.

In a few seconds, the database returns a list of all the sources of supply for that part type available organised by manufacturer name.

If I don't know the part number but do know the manufacturer's name, I search on that and can usually pick out the part number quite easily.

Finally, if I don't know either the part number or manufacturer's name, I search on a keyword such as zener diode and come up with a list of everyone that makes that particular part.

One of the nicest things about the database is that it contains datasheets with complete specifications on nearly every part.

The database shows which references are historical and which are active, making it easy to determine which companies still make the part.

I often look at the military specification database to obtain specification sheets written by the military and compare them with the commercial parts.

If someone gave me the most obscure part in the world, I'm confident that as long as someone in the United States makes it I could spec it out in one hour".

"The bottom line is that this approach drastically reduces the amount of time needed to spec out components", Runge said.

"If I know the part number, I can usually spec out a part in five or ten minutes.

Even in the case when all I have is a description, an hour is the most that it ever takes to find three or four viable alternatives to present to the design engineer.

Besides the fact that it's much faster, CatalogXpress generates far more alternatives than it would ever be possible to consider using the old method.

Having more alternatives can sometimes save us money, such as when we find a commercial part that meets our requirements, yet is less expensive than one built to military specifications.

The ability to obtain the latest data sheets from the Web also helps to avoid the pitfall of using information from catalogues that are a year or more old and may have been superseded by a newer specification".

While Runge is one of the early adopters, because of his and others' early success, that a growing number of engineers in the company now make regular use of the CatalogXpress database.

The result is to multiply the two days of engineering time saved on the power system by nearly every other electronic area of the satellite.

"Each section has its own product and design engineers and most of them are using this database", Runge said.

"The ones that have become familiar with the program are obtaining time savings of the same magnitude as myself.

When you consider the high cost of engineering time, the dollar savings are substantial, far higher than the relatively small cost of accessing the database".

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