Aero Industry - Power Wash Energy Recovery

Aero Industry - Power Wash Energy Recovery.

During 2006 Westbury Control Systems secured a contract to design and manufacture a quantity of mobile wash machine control systems.

The application is to provide a high pressure cleaning wash to in situ turbine aero engines thereby offering the following benefits:

Substantial fuel savings
Full power outputs restored
Optimum running temperatures
Reduced exhaust emissions
Lower maintenance costs
Environmentally friendly products

Westbury Control Systems are a major suppler of mobile equipments to the extraction and mining industries and were therefore able to offer equipment to meet similar stringent conditions of temperature and power requirements associated with generator driven units in an external airside environment.

From initial prototype development to the final delivered scheduled quantities all stages were planned and managed by Westbury Control Systems utilising their own in house resources in full compliance with their quality control manual.

The heart of the control solution is developed from the application of a CAN based controller with an automotive e1 certification, the software code developed by Westbury Control Systems for the application is written to control the various pumps, solenoid valves and operator colour screen. The screen allows the operator to easily select the required wash programs and be shown status information and alarms associated with the various parameters and washing cycles.

The e1 type approval by the Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt certifies compliance with the EMC regulations for road vehicles. Units with this type approval are allowed to be mounted on vehicles without affecting the vehicles' operating permit. This approval has been mandatory in EC member states for EMC relevant components installed in vehicles for public road traffic since 01/10/02. To obtain the e1 type approval the units must comply with the special EMC conditions for noise emission and noise immunity. The units meet additional requirements for mobile use, the extended temperature range covers 40�C to +85�C. with a protection rating IP69.

Further development of a similar model is now underway for a single engine aircraft having similar facilities but with a lower cost base for a much high quantity schedule.