NASA and several participating Aerospace Primes have opted to use TAI's Graphite Fiber Thermal Strap Assemblies in the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle.
TAI's Graphite Thermal Straps were selected over metallic foil straps and heat pipes for several portions of the program (from the phased antenna array, to multiple electronics boxes and in several other components being built by NASA, Lockheed Martin and Ball Aerospace), because of very strict low-weight to high thermal conductance requirements (impossible to meet using aluminum or copper thermal straps), and required a safer (under zero-g environments), more flexible option than heat pipes.
Several of our GFTS assembly designs provided a total thermal conductivity of a whopping 2.5 - 3.0 W/K, while weighing in at less than 500g each (for comparison, metallic straps proposed for the effort weighed in at well over 2kg!).
We provided not only prototype hardware, but flight and follow-on flight strap orders for Orion, and are excited to be a part of this historic program. We will keep you updated as our GFTS assemblies are further incorporated into the program.
If you would like to learn more about our graphite fiber thermal strap assemblies, contact me today. I am available from 06:00-22:00 MST (12:00-04:00 GMT), 7 days/week.
-Tyler Link
Marketing & Sales Manager
Technology Applications, Inc.
(P) 303.867.8145
(C) 720.917.4606
tlink@techapps.com