→
MilitaryMilitary
Cre8 Associates Limited prides itself in understanding the requirements for military products and services from a technology and user point of view. Many of our staff are ex-military and have served all over the world on land, sea and air based activities and has used this experience to provide our customers with the services and products they need. We look at not only the specific requirements of the product from a technology point of view but also from the end user, maintainability and logistic support viewpoints throughout our design and verification process. Cre8 Associates Limited has been involved in projects ranging from the project management of EMC on various land and sea vehicles to the design and manufacture of bespoke electronic and electrical systems, power distribution and conversion systems, to UAV power supplies and purely vehicle design aspects. Most of the activities performed by Cre8 Associates Limited in our commercial fields have been utilised on military based projects and as such our expertise in vehicles over the last 20 years of vehicle test and development management has proven invaluable to our clients in the successful completion of their projects.
Cre8 Associates Limited staff has all been security cleared on various projects in previous roles both within the company and with customers.
EMC
Cre8 Associates Limited are Military EMC specialist and have been active in this area (incorporating Mil Std 461 and Def Std 59-411 – and 59-41 – Def Std 58-06 and Def Std 61-05) for over 25 years including many of the standards developments and their implementation. We have been responsible for the writing of EMC Control Plans, Test Plans for EMC (and environmental to Def Std 00-35), Test Supervision and fault rectification on numerous projects for land and sea based products and vehicles and are active of Defence Standard working groups.
We utilise our in house EMC laboratory to provide pre-compliance activities in a number of areas on our products, and some customer based projects. It is our intention that the laboratory will be compliant in 2011 for military standards to a UKAS level.
Cre8 Associates Limited staff has been involved with all major UK military test houses for EMC and environmental testing over the past 20 years and have in depth knowledge and contacts allowing a smooth test process.
EMC Filters
The requirement for vehicles to be quite not only in the audible ranges but specifically in the RF communications bands has been paramount over the last decade although often neglected in design and manufacture. Here at Cre8 Associates Limited we have tested vehicles systems and components to various standards and have developed an in depth understanding of the requirements in order to design and integrate systems into existing and new platforms.
The understanding of the implications of noisy systems on vehicles is understood from not just a technical but first hand in service use by our staff and the importance of quiet RF platforms forms the basis of our intensive design and test verification activities on systems we integrate.
As part of this our staff design filters for all aspects of EMC from conducted, radiated, transient and lightning suppression as well as ESD and spectrum aspects. We have designed special enclosures with in-built RF suppression to reduce to the required levels noise from:
- Wiper systems
- Indicators
- Fans and Air Conditioning Systems
- Alternators
- Power Supplies and DC – DC converters
- RF Communications Systems
- AC Power Systems
- Displays and CRT Devices
- Computers and On Board UPS Systems
- Complete Platforms
- Specialist Products
Data Acquisition
Our specialist Controller Area Network (CAN) based data recorders are remotely programmable with encrypted data communications allowing specialist knowledge of a vehicles performance, its drivers activities, position and cargo (i.e. level of supplies, ammunition, temperatures etc) to be recorded and transmitted back for analysis either from the theatre of operation or on passing predetermined download points. In this instance this has been designed for maintenance activities were data on the engines performance and stores is downloaded on arrival at the bases gates for restocking and preventative maintenance activities (utilising encrypted Wi-Fi GSM or satellite communications). Additional functions such as vehicle immobilisation and tracking and numerous other activities can be performed utilising the two way CAN communications systems and its on board storage and secure connectivity.
Power Management
The requirement to supply onboard DC power to the vehicles systems has proven to be an ever increasing burden on space, technology and overall weight and design features. Here at Cre8 Associates Limited we have taken the end requirements or the problem from our customers and designed specialist systems or components to provide the vehicle with the required functions. Our knowledge of battery management and our links with preferred suppliers of our technology allow us to design the overall system around the technologies that are available today in this field. We have looked at fuel cells to solar power to provide specialist power management but ultimately are best known for our vehicle power management, emergency start and 24 Volt power systems, all of which are designed to our in house 5 point gateway design system incorporating safety case and logistic support activities.
RF TX/RX Systems
Cre8 Associates Limited specialise in looking at the installation of RF systems into vehicles from the overall design of the system, to the location of the antennas. The final testing of the system and its performance over the entire RF range and 360° polar field of the antennas operations is characterised and assessed against the design requirements. Once installed a full check on output power and cable performance is performed and checked to ensure that the installation is completed with no detrimental effects in its designed operations. This also includes interoperability and radiation hazard checks were applicable depending on the system being installed.
