Filters set to fly in new commercial aircraft

An Oxley Developments product story

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Jul 29, 2008

Oxley's expertise in EMC has been applied in producing a custom-built high-voltage filtered connector that has passed aircraft acceptance testing.

Filtered connectors manufactured by Oxley Developments will soon be flying high on a new commercial aircraft, thanks to an effective partnership with Turbo Power Systems (TPS).

TPS supplies the rack-mounted liquid-cooled controller for the aircraft's jettison fuel pump and required a high-performance filtered connector that would not only remove electromagnetic interference from signal and power lines but would also meet the requirements of an extremely high dielectric withstand voltage requirement of 2kV AC.

Having experienced difficulty with previous filters selected that were unable to pass the EMC testing, TPS approached Oxley with a view to finding a solution to the problems encountered with meeting the specifications.

This precise requirement for the fuel management system led Oxley to develop a high-voltage filter specifically for the new aircraft.

The filtered connector produced was a custom design that included a high performance ceramic planar capacitor array and custom designed compliant interconnects.

In order to ensure that the filters were fully tested, Oxley invested in new equipment for their in-house testing laboratory, which would duplicate the process of TPS and enable Oxley to extend prototype verification testing to in-line production testing.

The combination of Oxley's expertise in EMC filtering and the ability to design, manufacture and test in-house resulted in an effective, custom built, high voltage filtered connector that went on to successfully pass TPS aircraft acceptance testing.

With hundreds of the new aircraft on pre-order and demand growing, it is expected that the requirement for this specialised, high performance filtered connector will increase considerably, generating substantial business for Oxley and reinforce their position as a world leader with a reputation for quality and reliability.