ATR Chassis | Mil-Spec Air Transport Rack Suppliers
An Air Transport Rack (ATR) chassis is a rugged enclosure designed to house and protect electronic equipment, typically including communications and navigation systems, computing systems, power supplies and control systems. ATR enclosures are designed for compatibility with air transport requirements, with strict standards for shock, vibration, and environmental protection.
ATR (air transport rack) chassis and enclosures are designed to provide housing and protection for critical electronics systems, typically as part of an LRU (line-replaceable unit) within an aircraft or vehicle.
Standards & Form Factors
The form factor for an ATR enclosure is defined by standards created by avionics organization ARINC, and the dimensions for these enclosures can be specified via reference to the standard width – for example, enclosure sizes may be referred to as ¼, ½, ¾ or 1 ATR.
ATR chassis are typically compliant with either ARINC 404A or ARINC 600 standards.
Military Applications for ATR Enclosures
Initially used for aircraft “black boxes” and avionics, ATR enclosures are now also found in military wheeled and tracked vehicles as well as naval vessels. The electronics they contain are used for a wide variety of applications including:
716 Series of Lightweight ATR Enclosures by Atrenne Computing Solutions
- Flight control
- Mission computing
- Radar
- Electronic warfare
- ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance)
- Data collection and processing
ATR enclosures may include backplanes that support a variety of hardware architectures and form factors, including PCI, VME, VME64x, VXS, CompactPCI and OpenVPX. They may also be SOSA-aligned to support U.S. Department of Defense requirements for defense sensor systems.
Ruggedized ATR Chassis
AoC3U-210 Dual Slot VPX ATR Chassis by LCR Embedded Systems
ATR computing and avionics enclosures need to be designed to withstand the harsh conditions faced by military aircraft and vehicles. They are typically constructed from robust and lightweight materials such as aluminium, stainless steel and composites, and ruggedized against environmental factors such as shock, vibration, moisture and dust ingress, electromagnetic interference (EMI), extremes of temperature, and changes in pressure due to altitude.
Rugged ATR enclosures may also be designed with cooling systems to ensure optimal performance even under varying operational temperatures. Depending on the altitude, temperature range and other requirements of the specific application, these cooling methods may include forced-air convection, and liquid or solid conduction.
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