Hydraulics firm drives aviation sustainability with new technology
A hydraulics company is hoping to make aviation more sustainable with new technologies that drive down the weight of an aircraft.
Domin chief technology officer Simon Jones said the company…
June 13, 2024
A hydraulics company is hoping to make aviation more sustainable with new technologies that drive down the weight of an aircraft.
Domin chief technology officer Simon Jones said the company was launched 12 years ago with the aim of revolutionising hydraulic systems.
And by pulling together emerging technologies ranging from 3D metal printers to high-speed digital electronics, he added the company has created its own new products that meet modern demand.
Jones said: “As a company we use all these enabling technologies to create great product that allows us to deliver two, three or four times the benefits.
“[We have] focused the last 10 years on creating great core technology, this allows us to generate pressure from electricity in a very compact fashion and also modulate that pressure in a very high bandwidth pressure.
“We can bring those two core capabilities together to create great product for different markets.”
Jones said using these technologies they can create much smaller, more efficient products which weigh considerably less for industry’s benefit.
And with research showing that up to 15% of all energy used in the European Union is on pumps used in everything from air conditioning to hydraulic systems, he argued more efficient systems can drive down this consumption.
He added for the last five years, Domin has been focusing on how its new technology can be used to help aircraft which are heavily weighed down by traditional hydraulics systems.
Jones said: “The average triple 7 that’s flying around … carries between two and two and a half tonnes of hydraulic equipment on board {and} 2km worth of piping valves.
“The amount of fuel needed just to lift those hydraulics is in the hundreds of kilos for a long-haul flight.
“In a world where people are spending sometimes millions to save grams, this seems like such a ripe space for innovation.”
Domin Fluid Power is on the Farnborough Aerospace Consortium stand in Hall 1 at the Farnborough International Airshow 2024 on Tuesday 23rd July only.
