If you’ve taken the controls of a military, commercial or business aircraft in the last 50 years, there’s a good chance you’ve come in contact with products from the company now known as Applied Avionics.
Its VIVISUN brand of lighted pushbutton switches can be found in fixed-wing and rotary aircraft across the industry–rugged, quality certified products that have made the company an industry leader. VIVISUN switches are known for their superior sunlight readability, night vision compliance and maintenance-free performance.
But while VIVISUN switches have become the preferred choice of leading original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), they only tell part of the story of a company focused on innovating, evolving and responding to the needs of the industry.
In 2010, the company formerly known as Aerospace Optics introduced the first of many functional electronic components directly inside of its VIVISUN switch bodies. These innovations spawned the creation of an entirely new product brand from the company, NEXSYS, which debuted in April 2015. Complementing the lighted man-machine VIVISUN products, NEXSYS products are focused on machine-machine interface solutions.
The company’s NEXSYS LOGIC Component Technology is a set of ruggedized electronic building blocks that can be mixed and matched together to create tailored system integration solutions. Functional components including latching flip-flops, solid state relays, Boolean logic gates, voltage sensors, pulse/timers, electronic rotaries, diodes and terminal junctions can be combined to offer unparalleled design flexibility with over one million possible configuration options.
LOGIC Component Technology can be used to provide additional system features or provide quick solutions to unexpected changes or issues that can occur in the installation phase of a project.
“Traditional methods for modifying the electronic systems of modern aircraft are often expensive and time consuming,” said Loren Jensen, president and chairman of Applied Avionics, Inc. “Using custom printed circuit boards or a discrete single-function piece of hardware to add capabilities to these complex systems can bring challenges to the integrator as they face safety, software testing and certification issues.”
He continued: “While many system design engineers typically think of these as simple on-off switches or annunciators, LOGIC Component Technology inside of VIVISUN switches offers system-to-system integration opportunities that are simple, cost effective, and can be implemented with the speed of COTS deliverability.”
VIVISUN switches with LOGIC Component Technology are covered under MIL-PRF-22885/108. LOGIC components do not contain any software or firmware and are tested to the highest DO-160 and military specification (MIL-SPEC) compliance levels, applicable to both fixed- and rotary-wing platforms.
In addition to VIVISUN lighted pushbutton switches, LOGIC components can also be configured inside of NEXSYS LOGIC Modules.
LOGIC Modules are small form factor enclosures, approximately one cubic inch, that can contain up to four separate LOGIC components. The LOGIC Module can be installed virtually anywhere behind the cockpit panel or in the avionics bay.
Flexibility is enhanced by having the option of three different mounting methods. LOGIC Modules can be mounted in either a standard inline harness boot, flush or right-angled bracket, or standard Type-1 Rail. There is no limit to the number of LOGIC Modules that can be combined in an application. LOGIC Modules do not require additional power beyond what is required for the individual components. Switches and LOGIC Modules can be used together to create advanced solutions.
To help system designers understand the opportunities that LOGIC Component Technology offers, Applied Avionics has published over 20 application notes on its website. These application notes detail example solutions such as automatic battery backup switchover, time delay relay replacement, auto-cancelling interlock switching and dropout relay function. Additionally, the company’s online Part Configurator streamlines the configuration and ordering process and helps the company maintain exceptional delivery time.
“The number one reason why LOGIC Component Technology is so attractive to our customers is that with the growing number of avionics systems required on today’s aircraft, cockpit real estate space is at a premium, especially in rotary aircraft,” said Jensen. “Being able to do more in the same cockpit real estate space is critically important. We provide a lot of that system integration functionality within the switch or module, and [it] can be delivered in approximately two weeks from the time of order.”
The company also offers its NEXSYS ARINC 429 to Discrete Signal Converter (SR429) that takes any single ARINC 429 data word input and outputs up to 23 discrete output signals.
As a response to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s current automatic dependent surveillance–broadcast (ADS-B) Out mandate, Applied Avionics is in development of an ARINC 429 LOGIC Component that will be housed directly inside the switch. This new product will be available by the spring of 2017.
“Our company rebranding to Applied Avionics is an evolutionary result of our company’s success and growth,” said Jensen.
Although the name of the company has changed, the company’s commitment to excellence remains the same.
“Our products require a lot of certification and testing processes,” said Jensen. “We are absolutely committed to making the best product on the market. We don’t short-cut in terms of the quality of the product. That is the legacy of our VIVISUN products and we are as committed as ever to the same philosophy in the new products that we develop.”
If you would like to see your company featured in Insight, contact Derek Kast at derek@mhmpub.com.
