By John McHale
SAN DIEGO — AP Labs and Lockheed Martin Canada are teaming to provide the Canadian navy with 14 rugged system racks aboard Halifax-class frigates. The rack accommodates the AP Labs FS-8915 custom rugged enclosure, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) uninterruptible power supply, and an anti-condensation system.
Lockheed Martin Canada engineers selected AP Labs based on several previous solutions, AP Labs officials say.
AP Labs completed the three initial units in August. The remaining 11 systems will be delivered during the next year, company officials say.
The FS-8915 will have an integrated health-monitoring system that keeps an eye on the voltage, temperature of chassis, and fans, says Tom Schmedake, product manager at AP Labs. It monitors the status and gives an audible and/or visual warning if the system needs to be shut down, he continues.
The system's anti-condensation feature controls rack humidity aboard ship. It is a series of heaters that sense the temperature inside and outside the chassis, Schmedake says. The system makes sure that the temperature inside the chassis stays higher than the temperature outside the chassis to prevent condensation, he explains.
"Lockheed Martin Canada told us that '[AP Labs] provides a safe haven for COTS electronics,'" Schmedake says. Because enclosures are not really COTS devices, they just protect them, he explains.
The majority of AP Labs customers do not buy their chassis or enclosures right out of the catalog, Schmedake says. They usually pick something then ask AP Labs to tailor it to their specific application, he adds.
For more information, contact Jessica Grindle at AP Labs by phone at 858-546-8626, by e-mail at [email protected], or on the World Wide Web at http://www.aplabs.com.
