Helicopter Hoists and Winches

One of the key uses of helicopters for both civilian as well as military purposes is for moving and hauling cargo in a short time-frame, or into awkward locations. MSI has become skilled at performing strength-of-materials calculations associated with winch and hoist components in such aircraft applications. One of the issues which has become clear in MSI's investigations is that, in spite of some of the excellent hardware already in existence for helicopter winches and hoists, significantly increased cargo capacity is possible, and at the same time the weight of such advanced hoist systems could be reduced. Key factors that MSI identified which may be brought into play to accomplish this in future designs include composite structural materials, improved gear tribology (through coatings and/or lubricants), improved cable materials, and better "systems" integration of the hoist supports with the aircraft frame. MSI's strong materials background as well as its superior analytical tools (such as ANSYS and Pro/Engineer) are allowing rapid progress in this area.