Retrofit Engineering 

Aging equipment and machinery may become outmoded, unserviceable or unable to satisfy today’s high-performance requirements. To modernize or replace outdated equipment, Southwest Research Institute® (SwRI®) provides a wide range of retrofit engineering services, including:

• Redesign of mechanical, electrical and software systems, subsystems or components
• Replacement of outdated technology with modern and innovative solutions
• Increased mean-time-between-failures (MTBF) of high-failure items
• Development of efficient and effective in-house diagnostic and maintenance capabilities
• Improvement of system or subsystem reliability and maintainability

Drawing upon the Institute’s multidisciplinary capabilities, SwRI engineers solve problems associated with requirements for:

• Drawings or technical data ownership
• Enhanced functionality of components or systems
• Establishment in-house maintenance capabilities
• New or additional qualified vendors
• Product improvement

	The Institute has improved the testing capabilities and operational flight software maintenance of the Air Force A-10's low-altitude safety and target enhancement computer. Full design disclosure included DOD-STD-2167A software documents, Cadre CASE databases, source code and drawings.
SwRI engineers redesigned the F-16 landing gear control assembly, solving numerous system mechanical and electrical problems.
	After the military's sole source of supply for this component was no longer available, SwRI re-engineered the actuator arm of the C-5 landing gear to qualify new vendors.

Using a systems engineering approach, SwRI conducts all aspects of retrofit engineering, including:

• Analysis and design review
• Design
• Prototype development
• Design validation
• Documentation and support

Mature Aircraft Systems Support

To support the Institute’s mechanical redesign program, SwRI engineers may use the following equipment, software applications and procedures:

• Coordination of measuring machines to determine dimensions
• Optical, scanning and Auger microscopes to provide metallurgy information
• Pro/ENGINEER™ to create virtual prototypes
• ANSYS™ to provide stress and thermal modeling
• Stereolithography to produce rapid prototypes
• Temperature, humidity, vibration and electromagnetic interference and compatibility (EMI/EMC) tests to evaluate prototypes

SwRI provides Operational Flight Program development to support both current and future upgrades to the Turbine Engine Monitoring System / Airborne Data Recorder (TEMS/ADR) avionics LRU in accordance with ISO 9001:2000 procedures. SwRI’s proven processes have resulted in efficient and cost-effective software engineering development and simulation capabilities that allow us to successfully design, test, integrate and perform formal qualification tests in preparation for aircraft flight test.

SwRI’s electrical redesign efforts may include:

• Matlab® and Simulink® to model control system and DSP functions
• PSPICE® to model analog electrical circuits
• ModelSim® to simulate digital circuitry and programmable logic
• Synplify® for synthesis of VHDL or Verilog hardware descriptions
• Xilinx ISE® to generate programmable logic files
• Hyperlynx® to perform signal integrity analysis
• DxDesigner® to capture schematics
• PADS® to lay out printed circuit boards
• Automatic test equipment (ATE) and test program sets (TPS) to support new components

Fighter aircraft are prepared to respond to airborne threats detected over the United States and Canada by the U.S. Air Force Atmospheric Early Warning System (AEWS). Radar consoles used by the AEWS contain electronic components, such as the circuit board shown, that are becoming increasingly hard to repair or replace. For the AEWS system, SwRI provided Form, Fit, Function (FFF) replacements of Circuit Card Assemblies (CCAs – both analog and digital), keyboards, trackballs, printers and power supplies. (Fighter aircraft photo courtesy U.S. Air Force by Staff Sgt. Bennie J. Davis.)

For additional information about Avionics and Support Systems Department, please visit
www.avionics.swri.org.

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