The UK oven and furnace manufacturer Carbolite has recently supplied specialised equipment for several different quality assurance and R and D applications. * FR-HiTemp, one of the UK's leading aerospace component manufacturers, has installed two special Carbolite thermal cycling chambers for testing hydraulic systems on the Airbus A380 'Super-Jumbo'. The chambers are used to replicate service temperatures between -55C and +90C while components are subjected to pressure impulse testing up to 6000psi (400 bar), sometimes for several days.
* AP Braking, a division of AP Hydraulics, has expanded and upgraded its R and D facilities with the installation of a specially modified Carbolite thermal chamber for long-term test programmes involving flammable liquids.
It is designed to accept rigs for thermal stroking tests on components such as brake cylinders and calipers, while simulating conditions in an engine compartment.
* A specially designed thermal cycling rig from Carbolite is being used by Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery for R and D work on thermal barrier coatings used for hot gas path components.
The equipment, with a maximum temperature of 1500C, allows samples to be subjected to long heating and cooling cycles that accurately simulate thermal conditions within a turbine.
* Tarmac has installed the Carbolite solvent-free ABA asphalt binder analyser at eight of its Northern Area quarries.
The ABA analyser determines binder content using a loss-on-ignition procedure in an electric furnace instead of separating the binder from the aggregate with methylene chloride.
