Thermavent-SD Munitions Lifting Assembly Sunshade Cover

The munitions lifting assembly sunshade cover (Thermavent-SD) is a lightweight Static Dissipative (SD) cover system for use on the A/E32K-11 Munitions Lifting Assembly (MLA). ĀIt is designed to provide >70% solar radiation blockage while functioning in a wide range of environments consistent with military operations. ĀThe Thermavent-SD cover will be designed to be authorized for use by the Naval Ordnance Safety and Security Activity (NOSSA), and be extensible to other military and civilian applications. ĀIt is a durable lightweight softgoods cover that packs into a small volume for transport and storage, and is simple to deploy and remove. ĀThe sunshade spans the ~10m distance between the MLA gantries to provide full solar radiation blocking for the conveyor area as well as cover from precipitation. ĀIt consists of a permanently SD coated fabric that has consistent anti-static properties through the thickness of the material and functions in any environment (wet or dry). ĀThe SD coating has excellent long-term stability in UV, thermally challenging environments, and against sand/dust impingement. ĀThe Thermavent-SD sunshade cover is grounded to the MLA gantry at the existing grounding connection points. ĀThe sunshade fabric also has a high surface energy so it sheds water and ice well, and is naturally resistant to mold & fungus. ĀThe Thermavent-SD is designed to interface with existing MLA gantries by use of simple clamped-on hardware components that also provide the pre-tensioning loads during deployment. ĀThe sunshade geometry is designed to distribute tension loads evenly across the cover to eliminate flagging in high wind environments to ensure operational survivability. Ā The overall geometry of the sunshade cover has reduced frontal cross-sectional areas, which reduces the wind drag loads which would be applied to the MLA. ĀThe deployment and retraction of the sunshade cover is capable of being performed from the ground level. ĀThe Thermavent-SD sunshade cover is a user-friendly system that can be dropped into the A/E32K-11 MLA system with no modifications necessary to the existing MLA hardware and has potential to be used in other static-dissipative military & commercial applications.