Oxley tester
Oxley tester
Keywords: Oxley Avionics, Tests, Lighting, Military, Aircraft industry
Electro-luminescent panels used by many military aircraft for visible and covert exterior lighting can suffer from degradation with both time and use. To provide aircraft maintainers and manufacturers with a way of detecting and quantifying this degradation, Oxley Avionics reports that it has developed an instrument which checks that the brightness of the visible and infra-red light emitted by the panels is acceptable for flight operations.
The Oxley ELP tester, which is operated by placing it directly on to the EL panel, has two operating modes for measuring visible and infra-red electro-luminescence separately. In the visible EL mode the green LEDs illuminate for luminance measurements above 30cd/m2, the amber LEDs illuminate between 15cd/m2 and 30cd/m2 and the red LEDs illuminate for measurements below 15cd/m2, indicating that the panel needs to be replaced.
Similarly, in the infra-red EL mode, the green LEDs illuminate for radiance measurements above 3.9mW/srm2, the amber LEDs illuminate between 3.9mW/srm2 and 3.3mW/srm2, and the red LEDs illuminate for any reading less than 3.3mW/srm2.
Operating temperature range is between –20C and +50C, and additional features include pre-calibration, hand-held operation, battery condition indicator and a robust instrument casing. The tester can be used for laboratory test work as well as on aircraft flight lines and provides a quick and reliable means of ensuring that all EL panels are functioning with adequate brightness.
Other IR detector devices are also available from Oxley Avionics.
Details available from: Oxley Avionics. Tel: +44 (0) 1229 582621; Fax: +44(0) 1229 580687; E-mail: avionics@oxley.co.uk
