Product category:
Industrial gases and associated equipment
News Release from: Witt Gas Techniques | Subject: Gas mixing and distribution systems
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 11 June 2004
Gas systems ensure wing tanks do not
leak
Gas mixing and distribution systems are vital in helping to ensure that fuel does not leak from the large tanks, which are encased in Airbus aircraft's wings.
Witt Gas Techniques, the Warrington, Cheshire based gas safety, control, mixing and analysis equipment supplier has supplied gas mixing and distribution systems to all the wing assembly lines at the Airbus plant at Broughton in Flintshire, This equipment is vital in helping to ensure that fuel does not leak from the large tanks which are encased in the aircraft's wings For leak testing, the wings are bought into a horizontal position and a mixture of 75% air and 25% helium is pumped into each completed fuel tank, there are three fuel tanks built into each wing and one into each tail wing, so each wing is actually a fuel tank
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 21 Aug 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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Each tank is sealed and the gas mixture is pumped in under strictly controlled pressure, so as not to distort any of the flat surfaces of the wings.
The tanks are inflated to a set pressure and each wing is tested under pressure for about one hour.
A constant feedback is passed back to a manometer, which monitors any variances in pressure.
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If any variances are detected, a mass spectrometer is used to detect any helium molecules that may be leaking from a joint.
A network of underground pipe work allows flexibility into the system, so that testing can be carried out in a number of different production bays.
Don Grimshaw, General Manager for Witt Gas said: "The biggest challenge we had was to get the volume of gas over the large surface area of the tank without having the wing torn apart.
Inside each wing there are numerous ribs acting as baffles and if you don't get a free flow of gas building up, localised pressure can build up.
The wing is designed to hold about 5psi, which over the size of the surface area of the wing is enormous.
With the new A380 Airbus, everything is so much larger, with the wingspan being 79.3 metres wide compared to the wingspan of single aisle aircraft at 34.9 metres.
Witt's equipment however is designed to meet all the volumes required to test this size of wing" Airbus at Broughton has already acquired 3 mechanical and 2 electronic systems from Witt GasTechniques, all of which are mobile and can be used on each wing assembly line.
Airbus has found that this is a very cost effective means of testing for leaks.
Previously the tanks were filled with paraffin, which required a tanker as well as a fire engine standing ready, to deal with any emergencies that might occur and then it all had to be cleaned up afterwards.
To test the fuel tanks in each pair of wings, two gas mixer systems are required, one for each end of the wing connected by underground gas supply pipelines.
The facilities to build the new wings for A380 are now complete and the new Witt Gas leak detection systems are installed on the production line to ensure that all wings are safe from fuel leakage.
Brendan Brierley, Mechanical Systems Engineer at Airbus, Broughton, said: "This is the most cost effective and safest system for testing the fuel tanks and has worked perfectly for us since being installed.
It has definitely cut down the testing time taken for each wing, because we don't have to handle paraffin any more.
Witt Gas has always offered us very good technical support whenever we need it.
The system is portable, so that we can easily move it around the production site, as we continue to update our production lines.
This portability allows us to relocate the equipment with no problem at all, we just need to source the supply of helium and air." Airbus is a leading aircraft manufacturer with the most modern and comprehensive family of airliners on the market, ranging in capacity from 100 to more than 500 seats.
Airbus has delivered over 3,100 aircraft to more than180 customers world-wide, and boasts a healthy order book of more than 1,500 aircraft for delivery over the coming years.
With an annual turnover of 19.4 billion Euro in 2002, Airbus is a global company with design and manufacturing facilities in France, Germany, the UK, and Spain as well as subsidiaries in the U.S., China and Japan.
Headquartered in Toulouse, France, Airbus is an EADS joint Company with BAe Systems.
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