With the increase of electrical equipment and advancing of the concept about More Electric Aircraft (MEA) and All Electric Aircraft (AEA), the capacity of aircraft power systems have been required to improve more greatly. As servers have grown more powerful, their energy requirements have increased as well. This trend creates a need for power supply units with more capacity. To meet this trend, AC power supplies essential for the compliance test or the endurance test are requested to support the demands for the high capacity and the multifunction.
The Problem
Budget request to introduce the higher capacity AC power supplies considering foresighted demands was not approved…
Company T manufactures and supplies electric components for avionics market. The company had been facing a few problems about the AC power supplies to be used for the compliance test and endurance test. Electricity proves its potential in aviation industry. More Electric Aircraft (MEA) and All Electric Aircraft (AEA) are emerging and leading the way in the avionics industry. And the necessary power capacity of the power supply on board becomes high. The company had been trying to find the way to meet the trend.
Electrification of aircraft has been increasing in all aviation programs. The global MEA market has drastically grown because of the increase in global air traffic. The challenge in the global MEA market is the need for huge amounts of electric power for systems, with the current technologies in power electronics, it is difficult to achieve full efficiency. It had been a problem at the company to procure AC power supplies for their tests, since the top management showed reluctance to introduce the AC power supplies which the design and development department wanted. The top management carefully checked the budget request for unfixed projects. “They were concerned about the possibility that the AC power supplies would be covered with dust without using it after the introduction. If we introduced the AC power supplies with power capacity covering just current need, we knew that our test lab. will have lacked the power capacity in a few years. And buying additional power supplies as the need arises makes us spent more money”, said Mr. U at the Design and Development Dept.
What bothered Mr. U more was that he did not have enough space to install the big AC power supplies in their limited floor.
Key Aspects of the Problem
- The power capacity of power supply on board to be designed will be higher. Even so, it was difficult to introduce high capacity AC power supplies with a limited budget.
- It is costly alternative to introduce new AC power supplies every time our test lab. need more power.
- There is not enough space to install additional AC power supplies in the limited floor.
