Lightweight energy supply for weight reduction on the helicopter

• What was needed: plastic-energy chain of type E4/4
• Requirements: A lightweight and cost-saving energy supply system was needed.
• Industry: Aerospace, aviation industry
• Success for the customer: By slightly modifying the energy chain, it was possible to save 610 grams of weight per chain. The costs were also reduced while the specification of the chain was not affected.

Eurocopter Deutschland GmbH in Donauwörth has been manufacturing helicopters for military and civilian applications for over 70 years. One of our plastic energy chains is used for the energy supply on a very specific helicopter model. As every single gram counts in the aviation industry, the company was looking for a way to reduce the weight of the energy supply. However, the problem was that the functionality or specification of the chain or other components could not be impaired or changed as a result.

Figure 1 bottom left shows the original solution for the energy supply on the helicopter. Specifically, a plastic energy chain of type E4/4, series 2828 is used here. Here, 16 spacers were still installed to guide the cables safely within the chain. The decision was made to reduce the number of elements in order to save costs and, above all, weight. Due to the possibility of quickly and easily removing these crossbars from the chain for maintenance purposes, the modification of the cable routing was quickly finalised. The result: the energy chain was made 610 grams lighter by dispensing with 8 of the separators (see Fig. 2, bottom right). The modification did not affect any other specifications of the e-chain®.