{"id":1247,"date":"2009-07-23T23:28:14","date_gmt":"2009-07-24T04:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/?p=1247"},"modified":"2009-07-23T23:28:14","modified_gmt":"2009-07-24T04:28:14","slug":"whats-frangible-about-a-frangible-link","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/?p=1247","title":{"rendered":"What’s frangible about a frangible link?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>One of the tests run today was a test of the helicopter \/ cable \/ winch system.\u00a0 Everything between the winch and the helicopter is referred to as the ‘cable assembly’.\u00a0 This includes not only the steel cable which the climbers will ascend and descend, it also includes things such as hooks, shackles, load cells, etc.\u00a0 If any of these components fail and causes a breakage or separation of the assembly, it is referred to as a ‘cable separation event’.<\/p>\n

During the testing today of the helicopter \/ cable \/ winch system, a “cable separation” event occurred.\u00a0 One of the components in the cable assembly is a frangible<\/a> link and it was included to protect the helicopter in case a specified load on the cable assembly was exceeded.\u00a0 That link separated today during testing.\u00a0 Either the link failed to hold to the required load or else the load exceeded the link’s rating.\u00a0 There might be a third possibility, but I can’t think of what it might be offhand.<\/p>\n

The picture thumbnail shows the link.\u00a0 This link is in the assembly with other components above and below it.\u00a0 The plug, shown in front of and to the left of the link, pulled out of the link – it should only do this when its rating is exceeded.\u00a0 As I wrote earlier, either the load did exceed the rating or else the link failed and separated prematurely.<\/p>\n

Obviously, there will be testing and analysis to done to determine why this all happened, just as happened after the pulley failure<\/a> in the previous test round.\u00a0 Stay tuned to this blog or the official website of the Space Elevator Games<\/a> to keep up-to-date.<\/p>\n

Incidentally the redesigned pulley<\/a> performed flawlessly and this looks like a solved problem.<\/p>\n

One other thing which should be noted is that a ‘cable separation event’ was one of many contingencies which had been previously thought of and a procedure designed for.\u00a0 The NASA person in charge of this operation immediately called this procedure into effect and executed it.\u00a0 Procedures are useful only when they are followed and this one was followed promptly and correctly.<\/p>\n

Laser testing continues to go well and will conclude tomorrow (Friday).\u00a0 The TRUMPF<\/a> laser continues to perform nominally and the remaining teams are taking full advantage of it.<\/p>\n

(Click on the picture thumbnail for a larger version of the picture) <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the tests run today was a test of the helicopter \/ cable \/ winch system.\u00a0 Everything between the winch and the helicopter is referred to as the ‘cable assembly’.\u00a0 This includes not only the steel cable which the climbers will ascend and descend, it also includes things such as hooks, shackles, load cells, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-announcements","category-spaceelevatorcompetitions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}