In a previous blog InterConnect taught us the difference between a circuit breaker panel and a power panel. The purpose of this blog is to explain where circuit breaker panels are located inside of an aircraft and why you may want to refurbish them.
If this blog was written by the president of InterConnect Wiring, John Ashour, he would say that the circuit breaker panels inside an F-16 are in Station 5, Station X, Station Blah, etc., but for me, I am not that smart! I am a very visual person who didn’t write the Lockheed Martin specification 16PR8817, like John did, so find below a basic picture of where the circuit breakers are located inside of this fighter jet.
Now that you know where circuit breaker panels are located, let’s answer this question, “Why would one want to refurbish their aircraft circuit breaker panels?” When a company or country decides to rewire their aircraft, the circuit breaker panel wiring is often forgotten. At InterConnect we remind the customer that the wiring inside of the circuit breaker box is just as old as the trunk wiring harnesses; therefore, they need to be rewired as well. This is especially the case when there is old Kapton wiring inside of the circuit breaker panels. So why rewire these circuit breaker panels? This is a very simple answer; it’s less expensive than replacing them altogether and faster.
In the past InterConnect has rewired UH-60 Black Hawk circuit breaker panels for the US Army National Guard, F-15 circuit breaker panels for the USAF, and F-16 circuit breaker panels for various countries that fly the F-16. When we rewire the panels, we do the following:
- Remove the old wiring from the sheet metal box.
- Remove the circuit breakers and inspect them to see if they can be reused.
- Clean, touch up and repaint the sheet metal box to look like new.
- Repopulate the circuit breaker panel with new wiring and components.
Again, the decision to refurbish a circuit breaker panel will save not only money (the cost to purchase a brand-new panel is much higher than refurb) but saves a significant amount of time. The sheet metal box has a long lead time so if you can reuse the old one, and make it “like new”, the delivery time is reduced significantly.
If you have the need, consider InterConnect for refurbishing your aircraft circuit breaker panels. please let us know for a price quote.
