By Jim Jenkins
Wiring Systems Branch

The NAVAIR Wiring Systems Branch (AIR 4.4.5.3) is reaching out to small businesses in search of new, more durable wire insulation and improved wire strippers for maintenance professionals to use while repairing the Navy’s aircraft fleet.

NAVAIR needs a stronger wire insulation that won’t become brittle through aging and prolonged exposure to extreme temperature fluctuations. According to Naval Safety Center statistics, in an average year, the Navy has 78 aircraft that are not mission capable specifically because of wiring discrepancies, including chafed wire. More durable wire insulation will be less prone to wire chafing and provide a greater degree of resistance to chemical degradation, arc tracking and maintenance induced failures.

“In tandem with developing this new insulation, we realize that if it’s going to be very durable and resistant to being cut, the current wire strippers may not be able to cut through it cleanly,” said Brian Vetter, Wiring Systems Branch, Science and Technology lead engineer. “So we also went out with an alternate wire stripper small business innovation research (SBIR) proposal. We’re looking for a single handle that can be compatible with wire gauges from about 26 to 14 gauges and to only have one cut head.”

The SBIR program is a highly competitive, three-phased award system and is the primary vehicle through which NAVAIR funds small companies to perform innovative research and development projects. There are many benefits that go along with the SBIR program. It stimulates technological innovation, fosters and encourages minority and disadvantaged business participation, increases private sector commercialization innovations and transitions SBIR technology into Naval aviation systems helping to keep the war fighters on the cutting edge. This SBIR wire insulation and stripper projects are focused on helping the Aviation Electronics Technicians and Aviation Electrician’s Mates of the Navy have the minimal amount of tools to carry, but the right ones to do the job correctly.

Currently the Navy and Marine Corps maintenance professional carries a suitcase filled with approximately 11 different wire strippers because of the many different types of wire insulation he may come across in the performance of his job. Some platforms also resort to providing up to five blade set types that must be interchanged on a single handle depending on wire type due to space limitation of the tool sets for shipboard application.

Vetter and his team at the Wiring Systems Branch are exploring the common two predominant technologies -- mechanical and infrared laser based wire strippers. Vetter said that NAVAIR has down-selected three companies and are currently in phase one of the project. During phase one, companies have to demonstrate the scientific or technical merit and feasibility of their idea. Phase two the companies expand their results and pursue further development. The end deliverable of the phase two effort will be a prototype wire stripper that is ready for field evaluation. Phase three involves transitioning the prototype design to a mass producible tool ready for fleet use which will then undergo operational test and evaluation. The tool will also undergo qualification testing, something new for the wire strippers used by the Navy.

“In tandem we’ve already started on developing an SAE specification for wire strippers,” Vetter said. “We’ve never had a spec, therefore we’ve never qualified a wire stripper so we don’t know what their life span is, how long it takes for them to go bad. Theirs is no validation for when you start getting a bad strip. There’s no verification other than the technician eyeballing it, recognizes it as bad and says ‘I need to change my blades out.’”

NAVAIR would like to see the specification for a new wire stripper standardized so that eventually a better cheaper product can be had for the war fighter.