Product category:
Shutdown, SIS and safety systems
News Release from: Elfab | Subject: Elfab ELF07-02
Edited by the Processingtalk Editorial
Team on 01 April 2003
British rocket science made safer by
Elfab
Leading pressure safety specialist Elfab is helping a British company in its efforts to claim a USD10 million commercial space-launch prize, by supplying bursting discs for liquid oxygen tanks
To win the X-Prize competition, Starchaser Industries, which was recently ranked joint number-one seed, needs to create a spacecraft capable of carrying three passengers into space on two flights in two weeks The Cheshire-based Starchaser began life as an experimental rocket test programme in 1992 with the aim of developing an inexpensive means of delivering small scientific payloads to high altitudes
This article was originally published on Processingtalk on 1 Apr 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Elfab Flo-Tel switch alarm for bursting discs
Leading pressure safety systems provider Elfab has enhanced its Flo-Tel switch range to meet the European ATEX Directive (Atmospheres Explosibles) 100A for monitoring bursting discs and panels
Fourteen of its sixteen launches have been successful, including the 21-foot Starchaser 2 in 1996, the largest private civilian rocket ever to be built and flown in Europe.
Last year saw the flight of NOVA, which completed all mission objectives before returning safely to Earth via parachute.
Elfab has supplied a 15mm domed disc in a custom-built holder for use in the Starchaser rocket engine development programme.
The disc acts in conjunction with a relief valve to prevent the liquid oxygen propellant tanks from over-pressurising.
Should the valve become iced shut, as sometimes happens in cryogenic systems, the bursting disc will rupture to relieve any build-up of excess pressure.
Anthony Haynes, Propulsion Engineer at Starchaser, outlines the reasons for his company selecting Elfab to provide the required component.
"Elfab's swift and detailed response to our enquiry, combined with its competitive price, made our choice of supplier very simple", he comments.
• Elfab: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Processingtalk email newsletter
• Processingtalk Home Page
