Past Projects at SEA Engineering Co Inc

The IFC Reversible Cargo System is a cargo container system for commercial jets that enables the operator to convert the passenger deck of the aircraft to carry any combination of passenger and cargo from 100% cargo to 100% passenger. The system is completely reversible enabling the operator to easily respond to rapidly changing market and route demands.

This project leveraged SEA Engineering’s skill set in that it was characterized by the coordination of design engineering and technology professionals and organizations from around the world: The owner is located in Montreal, Canada. SEA Engineering’s Edward Smallhorn, the main designer, is located in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. The project manager is located in Ottawa, Canada. The container manufacturing company headquarters is in the Netherlands and its fabrication division is located in Bangkok, Thailand. Aerospace-certified machining and component stress testing services were provided by a company in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada and aerospace-specified fire, smoke, shock and vibration testing  

 

Components destined for onboard aircraft operation must be designed, verified and certified for inflight use. This requires test plans, test procedures and test to be performed on all critical components.

As part of its work in developing a new design for passenger deck cargo modules for Inflight Canada, SEA Engineering specified the stress testing required for the components of the system, designed the test fixtures needed and managed the build of the fixtures, the set up of the tests and the testing.

 

SEA Engineering’s client, Inflight Canada is seeing demand by customers for refrigeration of cargoes to be carried in its innovative passenger deck cargo modules and has communicated this to SEA Engineering.

The new refrigeration systems must be suitable for installing in each cargo module, be light and simple in design and avoid the complexities of standard vapor compression systems. They must provide reliable refrigeration throughout the whole shipping cycle of typical refrigerated cargoes from truck to warehouse to aircraft to warehouse to truck.

SEA Engineering chose peltier thermoelectric elemnts as the basis for the system and has produced a preliminary design to meet the requirements.

A client needed to manufacture custom-fit ballistic vests from 3D scans of real people. SEA Engineering developed a preliminary workflow that enables complex real-world shapes to be converted to 3D solid models that can then be 3D printed as a finished shell component.

The workflow enables the conversion of the scanner output file into an 3D solid model in Onshape, a cloud-based solid modeller. Once the original shape is converted to a native solid in Onshape, specified ballistic resisting geometric structures can be added to the model. These structures can be complex enough to meet the ballistic requirements as well as orient to the surface contour at any location on the part. This can be done by programming the modeller API (Application Programming Interface).

A client was developing a new subsea oceanographic sampling system involving computor controlled sample processing. There was a need to verify the pressure integrity of the battery and sensor vessels before committing to full scale in-ocean prototype tests.

SEA Engineering performed FEA (Finite Element Analysis)on solid models of the battery and sensor pressure vessel assemblies and produced reports on the two vessels deliniating the stress regimes in the vessel components resulting from the specified loading conditions. This allowed the client to commence testing with confidence.

In cooperation with others, SEA Engineering developed a water purification system based on a process of dehumidifying heated, saturated air.

SEA Engineering performed the psychrometric calculations, created 3D models of the system , produced the drawings and managed the fabrication of a prototype by sub-contracxtors. SEA leveraged the 3D models in producing schematics and images in support of funding and patent applications and production of marketing materials.

SEA Engineering worked in cooperation with a client in the development of an experimental aircraft with unique characteristics. The design approach was to create 3D models of shapes that were determined from aerodynamic principals and to subject the models to Computer Fluid Dynamic (CFD) analysis to extract flight performance. 

To facilitate the deign/analysis iterative cycle, SEA Engineering produced the model with controlling dimensions defined by equations and linked to a parametric table. This facilitates quicker model changes by modifying values in the  parametric table which then automatically redraws the model.

High performance chips (integrated circuits) in computers and other electrical/electronic devices can run hot and must be cooled. Cooling devices based on supersonic two-phase flow micro-nozzles have potential for very high density heat transfer. This technology may prove to be effective for heat removal in the very tight confines encountered on circuit boards utilizing high performance chips.

In order to effectively test the innovative cooling devices a hot plate testing device is needed.  A hot plate tester is a test device that controls heat flow through a test surface so that the heat flow through a device under test mounted on the test surface can be measured accurately. Drawing from past hot plate test device experience, SEA Engineering has done some work in configuring a hot plate tester for evaluating the thermal effectiveness of newly designed micro-nozzle chip coolers.

S.E.A. Engineering developed beta-level electro-deionization water treatment systems for the retail/commercial drinking water markets for a client in San Francisco. The technology has been purchased by a manufacturer.

S.E.A. Engineering worked with a US company on the development of a large underwater vehicle for the US Navy. SEA obtained and maintained a Canadian Controlled Goods registration for the one and a half year duration of this project. Also, Ed Smallhorn maintains a NATO Secret certification level. This allows Ed Smallhorn and SEA Engineering Co. Inc. to work on defense projects requiring ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations), Canadian Controlled Goods certification, and other defense certifications of NATO countries. 

 

For this project, our client was a Canadian consulting company that had a partnership with a large US subsea engineering firm. This partnership jointly owned a concept for extracting heavy oil cargoes from sunken vessels.

We were contracted to manage a design team to bring the technology through the detailed design stage. The system consists of a 60-ton (in-air) subsea module connected by subsea hoses to barge-mounted oil/water separation equipment and an oil storage vessel. The subsea module contains components based on proprietary technology to penetrate the plating of a sunken wreck and extract the cargo to the surface vessels. 

Mr. Smallhorn, president of S.E.A. Engineering, is the project engineer responsible for the TIM series of thermal manikins designed and developed for The Cord Group Limited. The TIM Thermal Manikin Test System is designed for evaluating the thermal insulation of protective clothing. The system is specifically designed to test survival suits for ocean emergencies but can be used to test any thermal protective garments or systems such as snowmobile suits and sleeping bags. The system consists of a manikin and data acquisition/control system connected to a computer running special purpose software. The manikin itself has 15 sections based on aluminum castings equipped with temperature sensors and electric heaters. Shoulder and hip joints are rotatable to allow the manikin to assume seated and standing test positions. All stationary and moveable joints in the manikin are sealed making the manikin immersible.

In operation, the manikin is dressed in the suit to be tested and immersed in a suitable environment such as a wave pool. The computing equipment then controls the heaters to maintain the skin of the manikin at a set temperature. Simultaneously, it measures the electrical power required to do so. This power is equivalent to the heat that escaped through the suit due to the temperature difference across it. The power and temperature difference are then used, along with the known surface area of the manikin to calculate the thermal resistance provided by the suit.

SEA Engineering Co Inc has designed replacement windows for high-pressure diving chambers and submersibles (mini-submarines). These window replacements have been designed according to American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Pressure Vessels for Human Occupancy (PVHO). With this certification, the appropriate stress analysis ensures that the following meet the code: 

• Window Seats 
• Window Flanges 
• Window Geometry & Thickness  
• Window Seals 
• Dimensional Tolerances & Surface Finishes 

This product was designed in response to an expressed need in a specific application area. A manufacturer of special-purpose agricultural harvesting equipment needed a transmission to link a farm tractor power takeoff to a hydraulic motor to drive the attached machinery.

Existing transmissions did not have adequate robustness or horsepower ratings, nor were appropriate gear ratios available. We analyzed the needs of this client, and the product was brought through the conceptual design and detail design phases.

SEA Engineering Co Inc led a project to redesign a bottom-entry drive for a chemical mix tank for a manufacturer of medical dip molded products. The original design had been performed by a company without the concept innovation skills nor the precision machine design and fabrication capabilities required to produce a working solution.

We applied careful attention to precision fits and tolerances, proper application of rolling contact bearings, and the design of a special seal arrangement to seal against leakage of the agressive process solvents. As a result we delivered an effective solution for our client. 

SEA Engineering Co Inc supported a proposal by a fiber-reinforced composites company for the mold design for a high-volume public transit train seat. By offering this solution, we were able to support our client’s efforts to secure a project with a prominent mass transit vehicle manufacturer. 

To accomplish this, our team focused on sourcing and negotiating with specialized FRP mold manufacturers and consultants. Additionally, we produced 3-D drawings of both the mold and the finished product. These efforts played a vital role in supporting the activities associated with the proposal. 

A 3-D model of an electronic parking meter was created by S.E.A. Engineering for a client. The model was used to create a plastic model by stereolithography for internal circuit board and mechanism fit up. The 3-D model and 2-D detail drawings created from it were used to make production die castings of the housing.

A thermoforming press is used to form thin plastic sheet into shapes for end uses such as packaging. S.E.A. Engineering was contracted by a thermoforming machine manufacturer to design the forming, trimming and scrap-winding stations of a new machine and to assist with heater and indexer system design. The new product is a servo-driven, plug-assist machine with separate heating, forming, trimming, stacking and scrap-winding stations. The design was completely done using 3D parametric modeling which allowed the use of finite element analysis on critical components and the use of 3D dynamic analysis on the drive train so that the optimum servo drives could be selected. Typical tasks involved in the project were: