Carleton Life Support Systems Inc. - Engineering Capabilities

Since pilots have had the need to breathe at high altitudes, Carleton Life Support Systems Inc. has been there for them, providing oxygen enriched air and committing to the safety of their mission.
Carleton Life Support Systems is a world leader in the application of air separation technology for aviation applications and in the design and manufacture of miniature sterling cycle cryogenic coolers. Bendix Aviation founded the company in 1951 and the sold the facility to Litton Industries in 1982. Northrop Grumman Corporation acquired Litton Industries in 2001 and then in August 2003, divested the Life Support division, based in Davenport, IA, to Cobham plc, Dorsett, United Kingdom. Carleton Life Support is now part of the Carleton Technologies family of companies owned by Cobham.
Since its inception, Carleton Life Support has continually challenged its employees by encouraging forward thinking and maintaining its leadership role in advanced technology for military and commercial products. Life Support has developed an attention for details and prides itself on its rich history and reputation for excellence. Today, that persistence and innovation has transformed Carleton Life Support into a world-class operation that is on the forefront of superior new technology and continued market leadership.

Engineering The Carleton Life Support Systems Engineering staff consists of 30 engineering professionals with BS, MS and Ph.D. degrees in Ceramic, Electrical, Industrial and Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry, Computer Science and Physics. 35 additional technical support staff includes designers, technicians, technical data writers and administrative personnel.
Product Integrity Life Support engineers work towards product integrity in an Integrated Product Development Team (IPDT) environment that utilizes expertise from all parts of the organization to design and develop new products. The product designs are comprehensively reviewed to blend the frequently conflicting requirements for performance, cost, manufacturability, reliability, maintainability, ease-of-use and testability. These designs are extremely important in providing our customers with the superior quality that they have come to expect from Carleton Life Support products.
Solid Modeling During design and development, designers at Life Support create solid models of new products. These solid models automatically provide mass properties, readily support rapid prototyping, reduce tooling costs and support subsequent analysis. The solid model database at Life Support is shared electronically throughout the organization to facilitate early identification and resolution of conflicting product requirements. The solid model itself is of great value over the life of the product, from conception through design release, product improvements, manufacturing and product support.
Analysis Engineers use this solid modeling process for stress and vibration analysis as well as thermal analysis to facilitate early detection and resolution of problems. Results of this type of analyses help to optimize the tradeoffs of cost, weight, strength and manufacturability. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis is also utilized to further optimize product performance. The design of electronic circuit boards is also accomplished electronically. Electronic transfer of the design database file to circuit board suppliers provides rapid availability of finished boards. This greatly enhances the development process.
Competencies The Engineering department at Life Support utilizes many design and test tools to produce the highest quality product on the market and the best value for our customers. The Davenport facility houses nine testing and product development laboratories In addition, numerous software programs such as PRO/Engineer, Ansys Multi-Physics, P-SPICE, Orcad Capture, ANSOFT, HARVARD Thermal, and Fault Tree + Tree are used to develop and test the quality, durability, adaptability and overall product integrity according to the customer’s sometimes complex specifications.