Designing Man-Portable Systems

The Mechanical Solutions Group designed a rugged, lightweight, man-portable deployment case to allow a delicate payload to be physically transported during field operations.

To reduce the overall size and weight of the case, the outer shell was fabricated with KEVLAR®, while many of the internal supports were fabricated with a rapid-prototyping process.

The design team conducted drops tests to insure the system would survive plausible transit drops while limiting the level of shock transmitted to the delicate payload. During the design phase, preliminary drops were conducted to determine the size, shape, and stiffness of external and internal support structures and to determine the thickness of foam.

Final qualification testing of the fieldable system was conducted per the guidelines of MIL-STD-810F, Method 516.5, Procedure IV. An 8-channel, high-speed data logger was used to allow g-loads to be measured in three directions at two locations simultaneously.

Accelerometer Output Levels during Drop Test

Project Contact: D. Alexander