Page 34 - 2020 Interconnect Innovations eBook

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One main concern has to do with partial discharge, a type of localized insulation breakdown that doesn’t fully bridge the space between conductors. When partial discharge takes place, it causes insulators to fail prematurely, which has the potential to lead to serious damage.
It is also important to understand that cables and connectors, which are rated for a specific voltage at sea level, may not perform as intended at that same voltage at a different altitude. Currently, there are no industry-wide standards that product engineers can reference when designing and qualifying components for use in systems utilizing AC or DC voltage at the 800V or higher levels used by most AAM aircraft. As such, successfully bringing high-voltage interconnect products to market will require thoughtful planning, skill, and experience.
A good engineering team knows how to build upon existing designs to develop the components that will be most successful in the AAM market. They can ramp up production quickly to minimize lead times and time-to-market. In addition to design and engineering capabilities, supplier partners that can provide aircraft certification and manufacturing, contract manufacturing, overbraiding, and testing and field services will further ease the journey to market.
An experienced engineering team will also put their design engineers in direct contact with your development and standards engineers to ensure that the right product gets designed. Not only does this eliminate middlemen, who could otherwise confuse technical requirements, but working engineer-to-engineer also establishes the relationships necessary for supporting your aircraft in the future.
Further, supplier partners with a broad technical base can offer several advantages in terms of development. For example, when suppliers can engineer both the cable and connector within a single company, those designers can:
• Share design information freely, without concern that they might reveal key intellectual property to a competitor
• Freely send physical test samples from one engineering group to another, facilitating both design and testing
• Share design information early and often, which results in finding product incompatibilities early in the process, when corrections can be made easily, as opposed to finding problems later on, when it is harder to make changes.
AAM vehicles represent the next generation of air travel and cargo management. As developers navigate entering this complex and ever-evolving market, speed, accuracy, and reliability will continue to be of the utmost importance. For optimal efficiency, ease, and success, it’s crucial to choose a supplier partner that can design and manufacture the entire ecosystem.
Suppliers that are committed to aerospace and have a long history of success in this industry are likely to overcome any development challenges more quickly, ensure product compatibility, and shorten the development cycle. By leveraging the right experience and supplier partner relationships, AAM developers can remain competitive and enter this exciting new market with the strongest possible position.
Visit Carlisle Interconnect Technologies to learn more.