New Rugged Conduction-cooled Chassis Provides Maximum Protection For Military And Aerospace Electronics

Designed in accordance with the VITA 48.2 specification for conduction-cooled VPX REDI (Rugged Enhanced Design Implementation) systems, the Titan chassis can accommodate a variety of standard bus architectures, including VPX, VME, VME64x, CompactPCI and CompactPCI Serial. It is available in both 3U and 6U versions and can be configured for either horizontal or vertical mounting.



The enclosure is made from high-grade machined aluminium alloys with protective chemical finishes and therefore provides the robust yet lightweight construction that is often a prerequisite for military and aerospace equipment.



In keeping with the VPX specification, PCBs are first mounted within purpose-designed clamshells, and these are then inserted into the chassis on a pitch of 0.80in., 0.85in. or 1.00in., depending on the customer's requirement. The clamshells not only provide extra protection but also help to remove heat from the boards.



The Titan chassis offers four options for external heat dissipation: a basic configuration where heat is removed by convection alone, the use of heat sinks attached to one or more sides of the chassis, the addition of sheet-metal covers over the heat sinks together with fans to provide forced-air cooling, and the use of liquid-cooled plates instead of heat sinks.



All the enhanced cooling elements - heat sinks, cover and liquid-cooled plates - are attached to the chassis using the same fixing points, and this modular approach to thermal management allows cooling capacity to be upgraded or adapted as required without difficulty.