WiredInUSA March 2016

INDEX

Onboard fiber repairs

She added: “One of the more common non-conformities concerns the contacts at the twoends of acable. If thecontacts were deficient, they had to be cleaned and polished or remanufactured at the shop floor laboratory.” “Working with our supplier, AVOptic, we developed new, portable tools that re-polish the contacts,” explained fellow project co-leader Nadège Brunaud-Martinerie, an engineer from Airbus’ manufacturing engineering department. “Because they’re portable – and battery-powered – the new tools can be brought on board the aircraft and repairs made without disturbing the other installers. We use the same processes and get the same results and quality as before, but…repair time is cut from ten hours to two hours.” The 18-month project received a 2015 award for excellence from Airbus.

An Airbus team has been recognized for developing an efficient new method to repair fiber optic cables. Lighter than traditional metallic wiring and offering much higher bandwidths, fiber optic cables are applied throughout the company’s modern commercial jetliners – integrated in taxi aid cameras, cockpit systems and many other key components. However, when non-conformities are discovered in a cable during installation, the repair is a costly and time-consuming process. Project co-leader Laetitia Mennebeuf, a fiber optics specialist from Airbus’s systems engineering department, explained: “Before, if damage was found, the entire cable and surrounding harnesses needed to be removed so that the repair could be performed in a shop outside of the aircraft. This took ten hours to do, and in removing the harness, other cables and wiring could get damaged.”

wiredInUSA - March 2016

29