The Next Generation’s Power Distribution System: Development of a system-level concept for Saab Surveillance
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Program
Publicerad
2020
Författare
Bergkvist, Michaela
Bramsvik, Hanna
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
This Master’s Thesis covers the concept development of Saab Surveillance’s nextgeneration
Power Distribution System (PDS) for naval application radars. The aim
was to design a new concept while focusing on lowering the production cost. This
was enabled by a current-state analysis where a comparison in terms of function and
cost was made of Saab’s two PDS designs: the Integrated PDS and the Modular
PDS. This led to the thesis focusing on the mechanical design of the PDS as the
total costs for chassis and mechanical parts were found to be higher than expected.
To further understand the needs of different stakeholders, seven interviews were
held with eight Saab employees with varying roles. Due to confidentiality reasons,
customers and end-users were unfortunately not possible to contact. Each customer
requires a high degree of customization, which is one of the greatest challenges for the
development effort, along with the production volume being very low. This led up to
a concept generation phase which was preceded by benchmarking, a shorter literature
study, and brainstorming. The concept generation resulted in five system-level
concepts on a scale from a modular to an integrated product architecture. After a
screening process, the concept named Bravo was chosen to develop further.
The final Bravo concept is a system-level concept of a new mechanical design that
re-uses the already military rugged and verified outer chassis of the Modular PDS.
A unit within the chassis is also greatly inspired by the larger internal unit of the
Integrated PDS, which has a low production cost and eases production and service
of the PDS. To increase flexibility and lower development costs in each new project,
Bravo includes Consumer-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Power Distribution Units (PDUs).
These COTS units are a crucial aspect for the design to keep development costs
of the PDS low. However, there were limitations to identifying the exact units to
apply, which is a further development recommendation for Saab to investigate. The
system-level concept became a hybrid of modularity and integration to best handle
the diverse requirements of future projects while keeping development and production
costs low.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
Power Distribution System, PDS, Product Development, Radar System, , 19-inch, COTS