Software / Aviation / Helicopter Rotor Tuning

Rotortuner 2000

Fully compliant with the appropriate sections of Mil.Std.810E, DIN 40 050 IP44 and RTCA DO-160C, the Rotortuner 2000 (RT-2000) is a portable or semi-permanently installed Rotor Track and Balance and Vibration Analysis (RTBVA) system for use on helicopters and fixed wing turbo-prop aircraft. The system benefits from comprehensive - minimum flight time - RTB solutions, unique advanced vibration analysis capabilities and a user-friendly interface. Features System Control. Overall control of the RT-2000 is through an ergonomically designed hand-held system controller (HHSC), The TouchStar ‘Voyager’. The unit has a touch sensitive, high-resolution, back-lit LCD display. Powered from the Data Collection Unit and with a back-up battery, it is both robust and easy
to read in all lighting conditions, making it ideally suited to the confines of the flight deck or cockpit environment. All data and solutions may be viewed in flight and hard copies obtained from the integral printer. The unit currently supports three user-selectable languages; English, French or German.

Data Collection Unit (DCU). Available in 8 accelerometer channel configuration with a frequency range of 10KHz, or a 16 accelerometer channel configuration with frequency ranges up to 30 KHz. The DCU can be used with soft-wired systems or can be used with aircraft onboard wiring systems. The unit processes the collected data and stores it directly to a PCMCIA test card. The unit has a small display screen to report Built In Test Equipment (BITE) results.

• Aircraft Data Cards. The RT-2000 is configured for use with different target machines by the use of Data Cards. These cards contain all information necessary for the RT2000 to collect data and to offer the correct options for a rotor track and balance solutions.

• Data Input and Storage. Data from the Line-Scan Camera, accelerometers and tachometer channels are integrated in the Data Collection Unit to provide data viewable as polar balance plots, vibration signatures and rotor track height and lead/lag displays. The data stored to a removable PCMCIA Card can be transferred to the RTVision ground station for archiving and detailed off-line analysis.
  

Track Data Analysis. The rotor track data may be collected automatically with the balance data or can be viewed in real-time for the fault diagnosis of blade lead/lag and /or pitch change mechanism problems. Individual blade positions may be retained on-screen to build up a composite picture of blade movement for the duration of the viewing period A variety of other views are available for data review and track diagnosis.

Balance Data. Balance data is displayed on the HHSC the moment data collection is complete. The data is also stored to the PCMCIA test card for immediate review and diagnosis. The data can be displayed against any adjustment type as polar diagrams or in text formats. The solution algorithm is fully configurable and allows the operator to choose from the available adjustment types, flight conditions and axes for inclusion in the solution.

Vibration Data. RT-2000 offers a unique vibration data collection and analysis feature. Small ‘Windowed’ frequency ranges (not starting at 0Hz) can be configured from within the 30KHz frequency range. When displayed with up to 6400 lines, a very high resolution can be obtained. This facility enables the operator to extract and highlight frequencies of special interest for specific aircraft diagnostic requirements such as gearbox or engine diagnosis.

Vibration Absorbers. Many aircraft types incorporate vibration dampers which require tuning to be most effective at reducing vibration at the blade passing frequency at the standard operating speed of the rotor. An easy to use vibration absorber set-up program is included as part of the RT-2000 Firmware to assist in the tuning of these absorbers. Data is collected from the aircraft and displayed on the NR tune graph, the system then performs the necessary transfer function calculations to determine the actual tune status compared with the target status. From this the operator can easily identify if the absorbers are operating at the correct frequency, and if not he can identify the correct remedial action.

Firmware Upgrade Options. The system is designed so that future operating software improvements and upgrades can be easily implemented. This is done through the use of Firmware Upgrade Cards. The operator has only to insert the Firmware upgrade card into the Data Collection Unit and follow the simple onscreen instructions.