VALENCIA, Calif.—High-flex silicone cables, designed and manufactured in an automated facility in Valencia, Calif., are allowing NASA to perform critical, “extreme environment” tests in preparation for what is hoped will be a long-term robotic exploration of the red planet—the Mars Exploration Program. The six-inch wide, custom flat cable is manufactured by Cicoil, Inc., and is currently undergoing rigorous testing at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, Calif., where its use on the robotic arm of the Mars Science Laboratory is being evaluated.
The success of the Mars Exploration Program will depend heavily on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), a rover that’s scheduled to launch in 2011. Its mission is to help determine the habitability of Mars by assessing whether the planet’s environment can support, or has supported, microbial life. Essential to the mission is the MSL’s Robot Arm, which holds and maneuvers the instruments that help scientists conduct close examinations of Martian rocks and soil. Running the length of the arm is a custom-formed Cicoil cable assembly that conducts power, signal, and high-performance video from the instruments to the main electronics within the rover’s body.
Custom contour forming of the cable assembly allows JPL engineers to fit the cabling along the actual shape of the continuously flexing robotic arm, providing a clean design in which cables don’t interfere with the extreme flexibility of the robotic testing. According to Cicoil, its cables are designed to last “tens of millions of continuous flexing cycles.” The Robot Arm is also undergoing extreme environmental testing, which includes exposure to high heat and freezing temperatures, as well as sand, salt, fog, and water. In one of the key tests, the robotic arm is exposed to blowing red sand—the extremely fine, abrasive sand found on the surface of Mars. Cicoil says that its silicone cables are designed to operate in this type of extreme environment.
Cicoil employs a process of encapsulating conductors in silicone, reportedly rendering them unaffected by severe vibration, G-Forces, shaking motion, and extreme temperatures, as well as water, shock, and the rigors of supersonic flight. The company’s specialized silicone jacket functions as a shock absorbing material, completely surrounding and supporting each individual component. According to Cicoil, the cable doesn’t require a clamping system (which is typically used with PVC, polyurethane, and Teflon (PTFE) jacketed cables) because the conductors can’t creep out of the silicone encasing them.
In addition to providing high flexibility and long service life, Cicoil’s silicone-coated flat cables are reported to withstand temperature extremes from -65 degrees to +260 degrees Celsius. Cables manufactured by the company are reportedly used in “thousands of demanding applications,” ranging from commercial aircraft and military jet fighters to semiconductor equipment and the Space Shuttle. For more on Cicoil’s process of encapsulating conductors in silicone, check out www.cicoil.com/cables/details/extproc.asp.
The company’s cable assemblies are said to operate in “the most demanding military/aerospace applications,” including missile gimbal and guidance systems; commercial aviation fuel control systems; fighter aircraft precision navigation and targeting systems; and space vehicle flight control and communication systems. Because these applications are mission-critical, the cable assemblies are required to perform flawlessly during exposure to temperature, shock, and vibration extremes (www.cicoil.com/cables/custom.asp).
Cicoil designs and manufactures its cables and cable assemblies in an automated facility in Valencia, California. The company’s quality system is certified to ISO 9001, including the Aerospace AS9100 standard.
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