
What's New @ Test Devices, Inc.

What Was New in 2004

What's New: This Year | 2002 | 2003 | 2005/6

Hudson, MA - 7 November 2004-

Test Devices successfully completed the proof test of a three stage fan assembly with an imposed axial gradient of 225° F. This test was part of the customer’s certification program which required better simulation of engine operating conditions by incorporating not only the centrifugal but also the thermal stresses. Test Devices is continuing to work to advance the technology of elevated temperature spin testing.

Hudson, MA -30 September 2004-

Test Devices has been awarded a contract to perform a low cycle fatigue spin test on a multi stage high pressure compressor (HPC) drum assembly while exposing the rotor assembly to axial gradient stresses. This test will provide the customer with important test data regarding the projected life of the HPC drum assembly while subjected to both centrifugal and thermal stresses for several thousand cycles, more accurately representing what the rotor assembly will experience under real world conditions than either ambient or isothermal low cycle fatigue testing.

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base -30 April 2004-

Test Devices has been awarded an additional SBIR (Small Business Incentive Research) order to research the potential for simultaneously applying both thermo and mechanical stress to rotating components during low cycle fatigue spin testing. As this technology matures it will allow designers to subject new component designs to thermo and mechanical fatigue during spin testing, which better simulates operational environments. TMF LCF testing will produce more accurate estimates for component fatigue life.

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base -23 March 2004-

Test Devices has been awarded an SBIR (Small Business Incentive Research) order to research the potential of optical strain maps. By painting a special array of dots onto a rotor and photographing it still as a control and then at speed, we hope to measure the movement of each dot and present the information as a strain survey over a large area as opposed to the current method of strain gages in discrete locations.

North Carolina -16 February 2004-

Our Chairman and Chief Technology Officer, Eric Sonnichsen, will be making two presentations at the HCF Conference in Pinehurst, NC. The first will be on Wednesday, March 17 at 11:00am discussing Crack Detection on a Running Engine and the second will be Friday, March 19 at 9:30 am on HCF Characterization.

Washington DC -20 January 2004-

Test Devices, Inc. applied for and received patent #6679121 on its High Cycle Fatigue Oil Jet Injection methods. This new service will allow customers, particularly aircraft engine manufacturers, to analyze their rotor blades by exciting them to resonance at various speeds until catastrophic destruction allowing for a more thorough and accurate analysis of problems areas.

View of Prototype Optical Strain Output

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What's New: This Year | 2002 | 2003 | 2005/6