Aircraft Maintenance Technology - 13

traditional hot bonders, inductive heating allows the heater to selfregulate its temperature to maintain a very precise temperature
across the heat blanket," explained Heatcon president Eric Casterline.
"This is very useful for complex composite parts where normal heat
blankets are unable to provide even temperature."
For example, a thrust reverser cowling has both a thick, honeycomb sandwich structure for its primary structure, and a thin, solid
laminate flange near the edge of the cowling. In addition, there are
frequent fittings attached, which act as heat sinks. If a traditional
heat blanket is applied to a structure such as this, a technician may
need to use multiple heat blankets in combination with insulation
and a bit of trial and error in an attempt to achieve uniform heating during the cure. "With this approach, technician training and
experience is imperative," Casterline noted.
Smart Susceptor technology uses a combination of induction heating and the magnetic properties of heating wire to overcome this
challenge. The heat blanket itself is engineered to self-regulate when
the material cure temperature is approached, allowing the heater
to thermally adapt to the part and provide uniform heating. In trial
studies, Heatcon has been able to show up to a 300% improvement
in temperature uniformity.

What Customers Want
WichiTech has found that its standard HB-1 and HB-2 hot bonders
meet and often exceed most current customer requests. Through
the integration process, WichiTech can modify a "standard" hot
bonder to meet almost any customer request. For instance, the standard HB-2 uses industry standard quick connects to implement
vacuum source and measurement hookups. One large commercial
aviation company asked WichiTech to forego the quick connects and
implement the connection via press-fit connectors. These changes
were implemented
and shipped as a new
configuration of the
standard HB-2 model.
"There are currently
15 HB-2 configurations
The HB-2 system
repairs metal,
Kevlar, carbon, boron
and fiberglass.
WICHITECH

Quality

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and authorized by K.G.S. Electronics.
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you operate, our extensive spares inventory is ready to solve
your AOG needs.
Call NOW for competitive pricing.

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AIRCRAFT SUPPLY CO., INC.

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Aircraft Maintenance Technology

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Aircraft Maintenance Technology