PILOT FORCE-FEEL & MONITORING
Our Products deserve
Pilots and Computers.
Crouzet provides a unique piloting experience, ensuring precise and reliable
transmission of pilot commands to the onboard computer.
All Pilot Force-feel & Monitoring families
Innovative Control Interfaces.
Crouzet provides artificial force-feel to allow the pilot to control the aircraft and position and sensors transducers units which capture the pilot motion and transform it into a reliable and redundant electrical signal for flight Control Computers, the FADEC or the avionics.
Since 1985, Crouzet is designing and producing electromechanical devises to emulate a force felt by the Airplanes or Helicopters pilots when using the aircraft command. Based on springs, mechanical parts, electrical motors and electronics, the design is flexible enough to accommodate some pilot adjustments during the development.
As the aircraft control becomes more automatic and Fly-by-Wire more global, the position and force sensors, coupled with our system engineering experience offers custom design to ensure that the Pilot Command will be transfer to the computer as expected by the certification requirements and the product specification.
Why choosing Crouzet for your pilots?
Enable safer flights
Enhance pilot comfort
Compliance with certification
Product maturity
Get to know the full offer
Electrical Dampers
CROUZET provides Electrical Dampers for conventional and fly-by-wire control systems; offering a standard mechanical interface and mature electrical components, which have been logging flying hours for more than 20 years.
Electrical Dampers provide an artificial force feeling to the pilot according to the speed of his/her command. CROUZET also has development tools and methods, as well as invaluable experience on mechanical fuse design and field data of the use of such designs to mitigate mechanical jamming. All of this allows us to provide a faster and more accurate design concept turnaround.
With more than 3,000 fly-by-wire Electrical Dampers flying, each with a proven MTBF greater than 20,000 FH, CROUZET has the technology, experience and capability to provide a more optimized unit in terms of system weight, cost, aircraft integration, pilot acceptance, reliability and maintainability.
We are accustomed to working with both aircraft and system manufacturers in a collaborative environment. When coupled with our extensive and capable on-site test facility, CROUZET is able to support all systems requirements, from development to certification, within the program schedule.
CROUZET is both an OEM and MRO solution provider.
Turnkey Solutions for Yaw Axis Damper Units and Cockpit Controls. Our yaw axis damper unit is available with design flexibility around force feel value, stroke, etc (all up to pilots’ acceptance).
CROUZET also has defined all design rules and test capabilities to demonstrate compliance to any force law, enabling a turnkey solution.
Design features & Main Tactile Functions:
Typical specification
- Weight: from 1 to 1.95 Kg
- Functional Stroke: +/- 40°
- No-contact Friction Torque: 4-5 Nm (Optional)
- Load to Break the Mechanical Fuse: from 80 to 250N.m
Functions
- Contactless Static Friction
- Mechanical fuse
- Customized torque versus input speed
- Several damping laws
Design features
- Gears
- Housing
- Passive electronic
Position Transducer Units
Starting in 1985, Crouzet has designed, qualified and manufactured Position Transducer Units used in all Airbus programs and some Dassault and Airbus Helicopters programs. There are used to monitor the pilot command or to provide a dissimilar and independent information of the control surface position.
More than 250 000 units are today in the field and the manufacturing rate is today around 8000 units per year.
The equipment design is customized according to customer specification, redundancy and dissimilarity requests. Typically, the position transducer units could include:
- RVDT sensors
- Resolver sensors
- Potentiometers Sensors
The design is common for pressurized or un-pressurized installation area.
The electrical compartment, the mechanical on are segregated and the load path design is redundant, if a breakdown of the force sensing cell occurs, the integrity of the product is maintained.
Based on this unique experience, Crouzet knows how to design and manufacture Position Transducer units for Aerospace applications.
Our Service department collects data for 40 years and provides guidance to design high MTBF mature products. CROUZET is both an OEM and MRO solution provider.
Design features & Main Tactile Functions:
Typical specification
- Weight: from 0.5 to 1 Kg
- Functional Stroke: +/- 40°
- Accuracy <1° at all environmental conditions
Sensor’s type
- RVDT
- Resolver
- Potentiometers
Design features
- Gears
- Housing
- Covers
- Seals
Force Transducer Units
Starting in 2001, Crouzet has designed, qualified and manufactured several Force Transducer Units used in Airbus A330 / 340 / 320 programs as well as on the ATR 42 / 72 programs.
More than 15 000 units are today in the field and the manufacturing rate is today around 800 units per year.
The equipment design is based on a modular principle with a core part that is the common force sensing cell and the DO254 DALB electronic for each model and following elements can be adapted:
- Front rod tube and end fitting,
- Rear rod tube and end fitting,
- Additional discrete signals into electronic board,
- ARINC 429 digital transmission.
The design is common for pressurized or un-pressurized installation area.
The electronic compartment, which is on the same side as strain gage, is completely sealed using static seal, around the connection with force sensing body and under the electrical connector.
Regarding the safety aspects the load path design is redundant around the force-sensing cell, if a breakdown of the force sensing cell occurs, the integrity of the product is maintained.
Based on this unique experience, Crouzet knows how to design and manufacture Force Sensors Strain-gauge base for Aerospace applications. Our Service department collects data for 24 years and provides guidance to design high MTBF mature products. CROUZET is both an OEM and MRO solution provider.
Since 2018, with Garos acquisition, Crouzet has a dedicated design office and manufacturing facility to design and manufacture the sensing cell and the electronic.
In-house operations are:
- Mechanical design for the force sensing core part
- Mechanical assembly in the appropriate customer ‘interfaces
- Safety and Finite element analysis
- Electronic Design in compliance with DO254
- Validation and qualification tests
- Strain gauge assembly on the force sensing core part
- Electronic manufacturing
- Final assembly and tests
The latest application is a load pin used on the A400M landing gear providing a information on force applied to the landing gear.
As each design is unique, please contact us for any Aerospace application relative to force measurement based on Strain Gauge.
Design features & Main Functions:
Load Cell Design
- Nominal force range: ± 1700 N
- Accuracy: ± 55 N (-15 / 50 °C) ± 60 N (-55 / 70 °C)
- Backlash: null
- Additional indentation :0,15 mm / 1700 N
- Insulation resistance :100 MΩ
- under 500 Vdc
- Bonding resistance :20 mΩ
Electronic functions
- Internal supply
- EMI filter
- Interface with the stain
- Gage Bridge
- Programmable FPGA
- A429 transmitter
- Trigger discrete
- Auto ranging option
- Anti-withdraw filter
Programable
- The ARINC 429 label
- The final offset
- The final load gain
- The discrete value
- (Discrete function on / off; load value)
- The Auto ranging activation
Crouzet announces the acquisition of Lord Solutions France.
Lord Solutions France (LSF) was transferred to Crouzet on Tuesday, February 28, 2023. The business now operates as Crouzet Flight Control Equipment, which is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Crouzet. Since 1990, Lord Solutions France has been a recognized leader in the manufacture of aircraft flight control equipments for the general aviation, business aviation, rotorcraft and military aircraft markets, including the popular Fly-by-Wire product line. As part of Crouzet, Crouzet Flight Control Equipment will continue their strong team-oriented culture, longstanding customer relationships and rich history in the aerospace industry.
Crouzet
Lord Solutions France
Acquisition of Lord Solutions France