Strategic Investment Opportunities, page-5

Hope this is what you are after.At this stage there ARE NO sales agreements in place and no sales figures,costs or budget figures available.I expect these to become known over the next 1-2 years.In the meantime here is a refresher on the story so far for you to start your research.

SMN



A liitle background on SMN


Given the administrative hurdles involved in aviation certification processes, it would not be surprising if this technology found much faster and fertile applications than in airliners, but that doesn’t detract from its potential in jets, or the private venture rocket lift systems that are to replace the Space Shuttle.

It is a disturbing fact of life that while ‘not invented here’ is often an issue in gaining acceptance for breakthrough technologies in America and Europe, ‘invented here’ is the big problem that has always confronted Australian innovations, like David Warren’s ‘black’ box flight data and voice recorders.

Can we break with such a legacy? Is this a starting point?


Well,I think WE CAN.


An Australian process for detecting and monitoring cracks in passenger jets has reached an important milestone in being installed in a sub fleet of Delta 737s.

Structural Monitoring Systems, an Australian ASX listed enterprise which is developing the innovative system for use in pressure cycle sensitive components in airliners, has announced a new test program for the invention with the giant US, which is the world’s largest if measured by passengers boarded (rather than passengers times distance flown.)

The SMS story first appeared here, in February 2012, as it sought to raise its profile.

This latest phase of a long and costly development of the SMS process is being installed and supervised at Delta’s Atlanta maintenance base and will run for a matter of months and be reviewed by Boeing and the FAA on its completion.

Structural says it envisages that the program will pave the path to the mainstream use of the technology in the global aviation sector.

In its filing it says “Accordingly, data collected from aircraft operated by a commercial carrier will convince regulatory bodies such as the FAA to allow routine use of the technology in aircraft in passenger service.”

Cracks occur in all airframes. Finding and monitoring them and thus improving their management is the product SMS is setting out to develop and sell. It is a huge potential market.



What the article doesn't mention is the fact that SANDIA LABORATORIES(the US eqivalent to our CSIRO)has long championed the development of SMN's technology..


ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —Networks of sensors mounted on commercial aircraft might one day check continuously for the formation of structural defects, possibly reducing or eliminating scheduled aircraft inspections.

Like nerve endings in a human body, in situ sensors offer levels of vigilance and sensitivity to problems that periodic checkups cannot, says Dennis Roach, who leads a Sandia National Laboratories team evaluating some of the first sensor systems for aircraft.

“With sensors continually checking for the first signs of wear and tear, you can restrict your maintenance efforts to when you need human intervention,” he says.

Structural health monitoring, or SHM, techniques are gaining the support of airframe manufacturers, airlines, and regulators, he says.

SHM incorporates into the aircraft structure itself nondestructive inspection (NDI) technologies currently used in manual inspections — to scan for small cracks in the airframe, for example. Such inspections are strictly regulated to maintain a high degree of aircraft safety.

Widespread adoption of SHM could significantly reduce maintenance and repair expenses for commercial aircraft, now estimated at about a quarter of the fleet’s operating costs, says Roach. Those costs are rising as the aircraft age, many well beyond their design lifetimes.

Ground crew technicians might plug a laptop or diagnostic station into a central port on the aircraft to download structural health data. Eventually “smart structures” fitted with many sensors could self-diagnose and signal an operator when repairs are needed.

Ultimately an integrated network of sensors could monitor not only structural elements, but also the health of electronics, hydraulics, avionics, and other systems.

Sandia is a National Nuclear Security Administration laboratory.



Extension of NDI
The SHM sensors being developed or evaluated at Sandia can find fatigue damage, hidden cracks in hard-to-reach locations, disbonded joints, erosion, impact damage, and corrosion, among other defects commonly encountered in aging aircraft.

The work is an extension of Sandia’s Airworthiness Assurance Program, which for years has focused on development and evaluation of NDI technologies to aid human inspectors as they go over an aircraft frame or fuselage skin inch by inch looking for the consequences of aging.

Boeing’s recent incorporation of an in situ, or permanently-mounted, crack-detection sensor into its NDI standard practices manual for Boeing airframes is the first time a manufacturer has adopted SHM techniques — evidence that the industry is ready to consider new ways of ensuring the safety of aircraft beyond NDI-assisted human inspection, says Roach.

Several other commercial airlines working with Sandia are considering SHM applications and are working with Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to use embedded crack detection sensors to address specific maintenance requirements.

“When we set out to do NDI, in the back of our minds we knew that eventually we wanted to create smart structures that ‘phone home’ when repairs are needed or when the remaining fatigue life drops below acceptable levels,” he says. “This is a huge step in the evolution of NDI.”

Growing demand
Sandia is part of a group formed in November 2006 — the Aerospace Industry Steering Committee for Structural Health Monitoring — to address the growing demand from the aerospace industry for standardized procedures and certification requirements for SHM. The international group includes manufacturers, regulators, government agencies, the military, universities, and Sandia.

The Sandia team already has developed or evaluated several types of inexpensive, reliable sensors that can be mounted on aircraft structures, typically where flaws are expected to form. “If I usually get fatigue damage in this area above a door, that’s where I am going to install a crack detection sensor,” Roach says.

One promising SHM sensor, a Comparative Vacuum Monitoring (CVM) sensor, is a thin, self-adhesive rubber patch, ranging from dime- to credit-card-sized, that detects cracks in the underlying material. The rubber is laser-etched with rows of tiny, interconnected channels or galleries, to which air pressure is applied. Any propagating crack under the sensor breaches the galleries and the resulting change in pressure is monitored.

The sensors — manufactured by Structural Monitoring Systems, Inc. (SMS) — are inexpensive, reliable, durable, and easy to apply, says Roach. More important, they provide equal or better sensitivity than is achievable with conventional inspection methods, he says.

The CVM sensors were tested in a lab and validated on three commercial aircraft beginning in April 2005. Boeing’s inclusion of CVM technology in its Common Methods NDI Manual, an aviation industry first for NDI, is the culmination of a comprehensive, two-year validation program by Sandia in cooperation with the FAA, Boeing, SMS, a number of US airlines, and the University of Arizona. Work on additional applications for Southwest, Northwest, and Delta Airlines is underway.

Sandia also is developing or evaluating a variety of other sensor systems. Technologies being considered include flexible eddy-current arrays, capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers, piezoelectric transducers that can interrogate materials over long distances, acoustic emission sensors, embedded fiber optics, nickel strip magnetostrictive sensors, and conducting paint whose resistance changes when cracks form underneath

SHM techniques also could monitor the structural well-being of spacecraft, weapons, rail cars, bridges, oil recovery equipment, buildings, armored vehicles, ships, wind turbines, nuclear power plants, and fuel tanks in hydrogen vehicles, Roach says. Sandia already is applying SHM to a variety of structures.

“There is recognition that SHM’s time has come, an opinion you would not have heard from many people a few years ago,” says Roach.




Good days ahead.


SMN





You really need to go back on it's history, to see that it was originally based fully in Australia, with the aim of developing and marketing it's technology here to sell on a global market.

But,things went pear shaped.Long story.But the original idea was to have a periodic ground based detection system.

Someone,driven by Sandia,and more knowledgable folk wanted an integrated system fitted to planes and operating in real time.

So,what happened, is the original directors and management failed to get off the ground and ran out of capital.

But here's the funny thing.Seems as though the Americans,Sandia and the major airlines, wanted the technology.Looks as though it will save them heaps, as not many folk realise to regularly inspect for cracks,you need to pull the planes to pieces.A costly exercise.

So along comes Toby Chandler with a few of his contacts and stitches up a deal to keep SMN going.

And the only reason seems to be is that he sees the potential.

Anodyne seem the perfect fit.Accredited,capable and willing to manufacture for SMN.

I will speculate that it could be a win-win deal for them,in as much as they are a manufacturer and installer of what I call 'soft' systems in a plane.PA systems,intercoms,audio,radio and such like.They do not,as far as I can tell,operate in the 'hard' areas.Navigation systems,flight control,landing system controls,etc.

So maybe they can see an advantage here to become involved in this ground breaking technology to move into flight systems.Dunno.

But the bottom line in this story, seems to be the desire to have the SMS system in planes,and folk are bending over backwards to ensure it happens.

All GOOD,but yes,unusual.

Just how I like it.

PS.The Black Box had a similiar story.Rejected by Aussies as the pilots thought it would be an invasion of privacy.Invented in Australia in the 50's,but developed in England.Took 20 years,not until the 70's, following a major airline catastrophe was it's worth fully understood.

David Warren finally received an Order of Australia in 2002 for his efforts.