Frocester Engineering designed and manufactured the Sidewinder a new retractable cable carrier system for use at airports.
Powervamp – The Sidewinder
Powervamp is a world-recognised designer and manufacturer of specialist power equipment for the aviation, automotive and emergency lighting sectors.
Frocester have been supplying Powervamp with various parts for many years. As a consequence of this successful relationship, Powervamp approached us to help in the design and manufacture of a new retractable cable carrier system for use at airports. Used to transfer the power from special 115volt 400Hz aircraft power converters located at every departure gate to each aircraft.
Aircraft power cabling and plugs are subjected to extremes of wear, impact damage and rough handling. As a result, power cables, AC plugs and their associated carrier systems are a constant source of problems at busy airports, with any failure potentially having an impact on safety, turn-around times and costs.
Our designers worked closely with Powervamp’s and came up with practical solutions to the issues being faced. We demonstrated our suggested solutions initially with computer generated models followed by rapidly produced prototypes for testing.
The resulting product, called the Sidewinder, is being hailed as the ultimate fixed electrical ground power transfer system due to its deployment speed, strength and usability. It is now exclusively specified by London Heathrow Airport and is being installed progressively as stands are upgraded. It has already been ordered by Manchester, Bristol and Edinburgh airports and is being trialled at other international airports in the UK.The design engineers at Frocester very quickly understood the issues we faced. They developed excellent solutions to the design challenges .Their input was critical in creating a product which met the unique demands of continuous operations at Heathrow, where the required 100% uptime demanded extreme reliability. Frocester’s speed in interpreting Powervamp’s requirements from CAD design, to prototype, to finished product astounded Heathrow management and enabled us to win the business. With multiple units already installed, the build quality of the finished metalwork from Frocester is excellent and their service exceptional.”