12 April 2017
High-Efficiency Super Capacity Chiller System Successfully Completes Certification Tests
Chesapeake, VA, 12 April 2017 – The U.S. Navy has successfully completed first article production prototype qualification testing for the new-generation High-Efficiency Super Capacity (HESC) Chiller System, consisting of the HESC Chiller produced by Johnson Controls Navy Systems and the HESC Variable Speed Drive (VSD) produced by Fairlead Integrated Power & Controls.
The HESC VSD was developed and qualified by Fairlead Integrated Power and Controls with Calnetix Technologies providing the variable speed power module and controls, and Parker Hannifin providing the vaporizing dielectric fluid cooling system. The HESC VSD is modeled after a U.S Navy VSD design first developed under a Rapid Innovation Funded project. Fairlead leveraging the same primary suppliers, Calnetix and Parker Hannifin, refined and repackaged the design to meet Naval Combatant military requirements.
The Fairlead designed HESC VSD successfully met all U.S. Navy qualification tests including MIL-STD-1399-300B, electric power interface, MIL-STD-461F, electromagnetic interference, and MIL-STD-901D Grade A, heavy weight shock testing. For the shock test, the shock isolated HESC VSD was installed in a floating platform and subjected to a series of four shock impacts from high-explosive charges positioned 24-feet under the water at four different orientations. The U.S. Navy senior witness at the shock test concluded that the Fairlead shock isolation design was so effective “a China tea-cup could have ridden that shock test”.
With the completion of qualification testing, the HESC Chiller/VSD are now moving into the production phase, with the first shipboard installation on the USS John P. Murtha (LPD-26) scheduled to complete December 2017. Other ship installations such as DDG51FLT-III will continue production well into the next decade.
The HESC Chillers are expected to reduce ship acquisition and life cycle costs by increasing cooling capacity by at least 50 percent, improving reliability by more than 50 percent, and reducing chiller fuel consumption by more than 25 percent, all while meeting the environmental objectives of reducing refrigerant leakage by 90 percent and eliminating hazardous oily waste.
About Fairlead Integrated
Fairlead Integrated is a veteran-owned, small business supplier of integrated electrical and control systems, large-scale mechanical fabrications and structures, precision machined metal components and subsystems, and advanced mobile containerized products. Fairlead’s products are part of mission critical systems in the U.S. Navy’s Nimitz and Ford-class aircraft carriers, Virginia-class submarines, all classes of surface combatants and amphibious ships including Arleigh Burke Class DDGs, San Antonio Class LPDs and the Littoral Combat Ship, and many classes of support and auxiliary ships of the Military Sealift Command, the Maritime Administration, and the U.S. Coast Guard. Additionally Fairlead provides repair and maintenance services to small boats and craft through its Fairlead Boat Works facility in Newport News, VA. Fairlead Integrated is headquartered in Portsmouth, VA with facilities in Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Virginia Beach, and Newport News.
For more information, please contact:
Keith Hubble
Director of Advanced Engineered Solutions
757-312-0574
khubble@fairleadint.com