HOLD-ON AND

RELEASE
MECHANISM
HEAT WIRE MECHANISM
HEAT WIRE MECHANISM

 Compression spring system to apply a force and a

stroke to the nichrome wire
 When a constant current is applied to the
nichrome wire, it will thermally cut through a
Vectran tie down cable allowing it to release the
deployable panel.
Nichrome wire Specs

30 AWG type Chromel C

Allowable free length - 10mm to 32mm
Resistance offered by wire for given free length –
0.4 Ω – 0.9 Ω
Support Structure Specs

Compression springs held between two saddles

Saddles are positioned on two stainless steel dowel
springs
Saddles are machined from 6061 aluminium which
is hard anodised
Dowel pins have tapped hole on upper end where a
#0-80 button head screw threads into.
Support Structure Specs Contd….

Head of screw attaches the nichrome wire to a ring

terminal which is connected to two flying leads
Nichrome wire is secured between the ring
terminal and the underside of screw
Ring terminals – tin plating
Vectran Cable Specifications

12 strand tubular braids

Either 200 or 400 denier strands
• 200 denier cable – Tensile breaking strength = 300N
• 400 denier cable – Tensile breaking strength = 600N
Electric current requirements

 Current limits: 1.4 A – 1.9 A

Current chosen keeping safe margins = 1.60 ± 0.05 A
Average cut times from both vectran cables – 2.4s to 7
sec in both air and vaccum
References
 Adam Thurn, Steve Huynh, Steve Koss, Paul Oppenheimer, Sam
Butcher, Jordan Schlater, Peter Hagan (2012, May 16-18). A
Nichrome Burn Wire Release Mechanism for CubeSats [Conference
presentation] 41st Aerospace Mechanisms Symposium, Jet Propulsion
Laboratory.
 Tae-Yong Park, Bong-Geon Chae, Hyun-Ung Oh (2019).
Development of 6U CubeSat’s Deployable Solar Panel with Burn-
Wire Triggering Holding and Release Mechanism. International
Journal of Aerospace Engineering. Volume 2019.
 Hold-on and Release Mechanism. Series 6. Glenair