News Archive

May 2019 — Passive Anti-Resonance (PAR) Isolator

Safe was awarded a Phase I SBIR program by the U.S. Navy/NAVAIR to address and improve the health risks, discomfort, and pain of military aircrew brought on by whole-body vibration in helicopters. Safe is developing a Passive Anti-Resonance (PAR) vibration isolator that will isolate an entire helicopter crew seat at its floor attachments. The PAR vibration isolator will adjust automatically to limit displacement during inputs near the resonance frequency.

Posted in US Navy |

April 2019 — Next Generation Gunner Seat Selectable Profile Energy Absorber (SPEA) Production Kits

Safe was awarded a program by the U.S. Navy/NAVAIR to produce 530 MH-60S Next Generation Gunner Seat Selectable Profile Energy Absorber (SPEA) production kits and 50 spare SPEA production kits, with tasks including fabrication, assembly, and source inspection.

Posted in Uncategorized, US Navy |

December 2018 — Powered Rollers for Cargo Aircraft

Safe was awarded a Phase I SBIR program from the United States Air Force/Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to develop a flexible system of powered rollers for cargo aircraft to increase efficiency and reduce airman injury during loading and off-loading of aircraft. The program designed a study demonstrating feasibility of integration of powered rollers onto cargo aircraft and produced initial designs for roller construction and total system architecture.

Posted in US Air Force |

March 2018 — Pocket-sized Surface Flotation Device for Cold-Water Aviation Survival (Phase II)

Safe, Inc. was awarded a Phase II SBIR program from the United States Navy/NAVAIR, to further develop and design Safe’s proposed surface flotation device (raft) for an aviation mishap survivor. The lightweight, pocket-sized raft will be worn or carried on the aircrew without interfering with the aviator’s flight duties. Safe’s proposed design included auto-inflation, a method for easy survivor entry, and effective protection from exposure to cold water. The Phase II included computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling, inflator design revision, optimization through DOE with CO2 and N2O, delivery of three inflators, testing, and manufacturing.

Posted in US Navy |

May 2017 — Modular Multi-Platform Rotor Hub Fatigue Test Rig

Safe was awarded a Phase I SBIR program from the United States Navy to develop/design a single test rig with modular elements that can be reconfigured to address any rotor assembly or component. Safe designed hydraulic actuators that can be moved into different locations and orientations for any combination of centrifugal, bending, and torsion loads. The hydraulic system accommodates differing numbers of actuators and load ranges. The control and data acquisition software also reconfigure to operate one or many actuators at different loads, independently or in unison, while measuring strain and load data.

Posted in US Navy |

September 2018 — Air Platform Passive Occupant Protection

Safe was awarded a Phase I SBIR program from the United States Army to address and remedy problems with current passive occupant restraint systems in helicopters. These restraint systems do not adequately restrict occupants’ upper torso/head motion during a crash event with a combined forward and vertical acceleration component. Safe will be developing a new passive occupant restraint system to reduce the occupant’s motion during these types of crash events. Safe’s new restraint system is also anticipated to be more intuitive, simpler, and easier to use.

Posted in US Army |

August 2018 — Spall Liner Energy Attenuating (EA) Material Development

Safe was awarded a Phase I SBIR program from the United States Army to develop a new spall liner for combat vehicles. Safe’s new spall liner design will benefit vehicle occupants by protecting them from the hazardous conditions associated with combat, including head injury. Occupants of ground combat vehicles are at risk of head injury when the vehicle is attacked by an underbody blast and its violent motion causes the head to strike the interior. Occupants are also at risk from spall, fragments of material liberated from the interior wall of the vehicle by shock waves or overmatched threats.

Posted in US Army |

June 2017 — Aircrew-Mounted Self-Adjusting Tether System

Safe was awarded a Phase I program from the United States Navy to address and remedy several deficiencies with manually-adjusted tethers currently used. Safe is developing designs to improve manual slack monitoring and adjustment, help eliminate hindrance of movement due to nuisance locking; decrease annoyance loads on the occupant; and, correct inconvenient or unrealistic access to the airframe-mounted control points of the systems. Safe’s program utilizes several prototype build phases for hands-on assessment of functionality of the system.

Posted in US Navy |

October 2016 — Pocket-sized Surface Flotation Device for Cold-Water Aviation Survival

Safe was awarded a Phase I SBIR program from the United States Navy to design a surface flotation device (raft) for an aviation mishap survivor. It will be lightweight and pocket-sized to enable it to be worn or carried on the aircrew without interfering with the aviator’s flight duties. The design includes auto-inflation, a method for easy survivor entry, and provides effective protection from exposure to cold water.

Posted in US Navy |

September 2016 — Develop Prototype for Fast Valve for Hypersonic Wind Tunnel

Safe, Inc. has been awarded a Phase I SBIR program from the United States Air Force, to develop a full-bore, quick-opening valve suitable for starting high-speed (supersonic) Ludwieg tube wind tunnels. The valve will open completely in 50 ms or less, be able to seal against 600 psi air at 450° F, and have a lifetime of at least 50,000 cycles. The design effort will include a finite element analysis of the valve components to ensure proper design/stress management and dynamic analysis of the valve opening process to ensure that the valve opening time is adequate and that the design is structurally sound.

Posted in US Air Force |