Under the terms of the contract, RAE Systems will immediately receive $500,000 in payments from the U.S. Military for toxic and flammable gas monitoring units used while servicing military aircraft.
Aircraft fuel tanks contain many serviceable parts, and require toxic gas monitoring for worker safety during regular repair and maintenance. In the confined space of a fuel tank, the most common hazard is the jet fuel itself.
Residual fuel is toxic and flammable; it can be ignited under certain temperature and vapor concentrations. Other hazards are the cleaning solvents, sealants, lubricants and other chemicals used in the repair and maintenance work.
RAE Systems' Wing Tank Entry Kit is customized for entering aircraft wing-tanks that have contained jet fuel. Its alarms, gas measurement scales and calibration gases are all specially tailored for use in environments containing jet fuel vapors.
The Wing Tank Entry Kit uses PID (Photoionization Detectors) instead of traditional Wheatstone bridge LEL (Lower Explosive Limit) sensors for measuring jet fuel vapors.
"Wheatstone bridge sensors are designed to measure methane, not hydrocarbons, and they are often not sensitive enough to accurately measure jet fuel vapors," said Chris Wrenn, Director of Applications for RAE Systems.
"Since jet fuel is a mixture of hydrocarbons, PIDs are a far more accurate solution for LEL alarms in jet fuel tanks. The dedicated men and women that support our air services rely on RAE Systems highly sensitive PID sensors to provide greater confidence in their safety when entering the hazardous wing tank environment."
The MultiRAE Plus used in RAE Systems' Wing Tank Entry Kit also includes an oxygen sensor and a traditional LEL sensor that provide backup reading for the PID.
While the MultiRAE Plus has two additional toxic gas sensor sockets that may be filled with carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide or any two of RAE Systems' ten toxic gas sensors, these two toxic sockets are not filled in the MultiRAE Wing Tank Entry Kit, since they are typically not required in this particular environment.