| 摘要 |
Disclosed are a method and apparatus for producing a conduit system (10) for use on-board a vehicle (3). The method comprises: identifying a plurality of source apparatuses (4) located on-board the vehicle (3) and from which a resource is to be transferred via the conduit system (10); for each identified source apparatus (4), identifying one or more sink apparatuses (6) located on-board the vehicle (3) and to which that source apparatus (4) is to transfer, via the conduit system (10), a resource; using relative locations of the identified source and sink apparatuses, producing a digital model (62) for the conduit system (10) including specifying conduits (12-24) for coupling the source apparatuses (4) to the sink apparatuses (6) and arranging the conduits (12-24) such that each conduit (12-24) shares a common conduit wall with at one other conduit (12-24); and, using the digital model (62), producing the conduit system (10). |
| 主权项 |
1. A method of producing a conduit system (10) for use on-board a vehicle (3), the method comprising:
identifying a plurality of source apparatuses (4), each source apparatus (4) being apparatus from which a respective resource is to be transferred via the conduit system (10), each source apparatus (4) being located on-board the aircraft (3); for each identified source apparatus (4), identifying one or more sink apparatuses (6) to which that source apparatus (4) is to be coupled via the conduit system (10) such that a resource may be transferred via the conduit system (10) from that source apparatus (4) to those one or more sink apparatuses (6), each sink apparatus (6) being an aircraft system located on-board the aircraft (3); using relative locations of the identified source and sink apparatuses, producing a digital model (62) for the conduit system (10), producing the digital model (62) including:
for each source apparatus (4), specifying a conduit (12-24) of the conduit system (10) for coupling that source apparatus (4) to each of the one or more sink apparatuses (6) to which that source apparatus (4) is to be coupled;from the specified conduits, identifying a first conduit; from the specified conduits, identifying a second conduit that is different to the first conduit and is to contain in use contents having a different temperature to the contents that the first conduit is to contain in use; and
arranging the conduits (12-24) in a nested configuration such that at least part of each conduit (12-24) shares a common conduit wall with at least part of at least one other conduit (12-24), and such that, in use, heat transfer between the first conduit and second conduit resulting from the difference in temperatures between the contents of the first and second conduits fulfils one or more predetermined criteria; and using the digital model (62), performing, by an Additive Manufacturing apparatus, an Additive Manufacturing process to produce the conduit system (10) as a single item; installing the conduit system on the aircraft such that each source apparatus is coupled, via the conduit system, to the one or more sink apparatuses identified for that source apparatus; and using the conduit system to transfer resources from the from the source apparatuses to the sink apparatuses, thereby causing the first and second conduits to contain contents having a different respective temperatures and causing heat transfer between the first conduit and second conduit resulting from the difference in temperatures between the contents of the first and second conduits to fulfil the one or more predetermined criteria. |
