FEA Ensures Safe Airline Sensors E LDEC of Lynnwood, Wash., designs and manufactures electronic sensors and systems for aerospace and defense applications, and the company has seen its products used on almost all major U.S. and European aircraft. One of the company's product lines is the magnetically operated proximity sensor. The devices use magnetic fields to detect the presence of conducting or magnetic materials and are typically used to detect positions of aircraft doors, to make sure they're closed and locked, and of landing gear, to make sure it's up or down, as well as to check whether thrust reversers are deployed, and to monitor flap and slat operation. The company uses finite element analysis to design proximity sensors, which must operate over wide temperature extremes, endure high vibration and shock loads, and function reliably in the presence of electromagnetic interference, plus ice, sand, dust, oils, caustic fluids, and other substances. The software allows for varied magnetic model designs.
Engineers then manipulate the design and look for optimal design performance.
With the software, the engineers have increased desired parameters such as sensitivity by 100 percent. Briefly Noted Waterloo Maple of Waterloo, Ontario, has released a range of add-ons for the company's mathematical software product, Maple 6. The tools are free. Computational fluid dynamics software maker Fluent of Lebanon, N.H., has released Icepak 3.2, an upgrade to its Icepak electronics cooling simulation software. Calif. ABB Automation of Wickliffe, Ohio, has introduced Control, a suite of software and hardware products that controls a wide range of industrial processes.