Optronic enclosure for a Naval application.

Sammanfattning: This Master thesis is a collaboration with Saab Järfälla with the purpose to find a more protective cover for the electro-optical side of their fire control director CEROS 200 version CWI. The project started with a background research to find as much information about the director as possible and examining some competitors within the area. The gathering of information was collected by a conducted web-based research and through various departments within the company. A requirement specification was decided after the research and acted as a starting point in order to generate sketches of possible solutions of a new cover. The sketches were evaluated by a panel, containing members from Saab, according to Pahl and Beitz’s decision matrix to eliminate the least suitable concepts. Remaining concepts were adjusted to the comments from the panel and then evaluated again according to Pugh’s matrix to narrow the concepts even further. From comments during the evaluations, additional improvements were made to form a final concept. The final design is an electro-optical side consisting of four parts: an inner base plate, a base plate, a cover and a solar plate. The inner base plate will enable the waveguide to move freely, all electronic appliances are attached to the base plate, the cover protects the sensors and the solar plate shields the electro-optical side from ultraviolet radiation. A sandwich structure comprising glass fibre, divinycell and carbon fibre is used to produce the cover and the remaining components are made out of aluminium. Since the electro-optical side contains three sensors (and an additional wiper, interface unit and multiplexer/demultiplexer), special window arrangements made out of aluminium and glass windows with a unique composition are attached to the cover. The concept uses hinges, gas springs and eccentric locks to ease the opening and closing procedure during maintenance and dry air to maintain a stable humidity. The cover has a flange with two seals, one to protect against electromagnetic radiation and one for environmental enclosure. A life cycle assessment and life cycle costing were performed to compare the current cover to the new concept. The analysis showed that the new concept will have a greater impact on the environment since it contains more electronics and therefore has a larger volume. However, due to lack of details, the whole electro-optical side was not included and does not reflect on the whole concept. The new protective cover will enable a wider range of sensors to be utilized which should be included in the analysis amongst other affected components. Furthermore, no tests on the concept has been performed which must be carried out in the future to confirm the design.