29 août 2019 | Local, Aérospatial, Sécurité
by Howard Slutsken
In the back of a tree-lined industrial mall a few miles from Vancouver International Airport, a fellow named Jerry is playing with water.
It's his job to fill a big orange fabric bucket, lift it up into the air on a winch, and then hit a big black button to open a valve in the bottom of the bucket. Water cascades out in a controlled torrent, splashing into an inground pool.
Over and over, he lowers the bucket down into the pool, refills it, winches it back up, and hits the button until he's satisfied with the bucket's performance.
Jerry works for SEI Industries and he's testing a Bambi Bucket, the indispensable aerial firefighting tool invented and made in Canada.
“Thousands and thousands have been sold,” said Sergio Fukamati, director of SEI's firefighting division, in a recent interview with Skies. “Our standard Bambi Bucket with a single drop valve is still the most popular one, but the Bambi MAX with its multi-drop valve is becoming the industry standard.”
The flexible buckets are sized to match the lifting capability of virtually every helicopter type. Capacities range from a small 270-litre Bambi to the huge 9,800-litre bucket that's carried by heavy-lift helicopters like the Boeing Chinook or Russian Mil machines.
The Bambi Bucket was invented by Don Arney in 1978, and the first model was delivered in 1982. Since then, the bucket has undergone continuous improvement, reflecting new technologies in manufacturing and materials.
The latest version is the new i-MAX, currently in testing and scheduled to be commercially available later next year.
“This is a Bambi that incorporates a load cell in the control head of the bucket where it hooks to the helicopter,” explained Fukamati. “It integrates with a touch screen control in the cabin, where a pilot can punch in a specific load, and the bucket adjusts.”
Like other MAX buckets, this smart Bambi can be programmed to drop varying amounts of water over several drops.
Bambi Buckets can also be equipped with a snorkel system to suck water out of an available source with a depth as little as 18 inches.
This kind of product evolution is at the heart of SEI's mission – after all, the company's name stands for “Science, Engineering and Innovation.” The company has a team of 87 people working in its Delta, B.C., facility.
“We have a very high engineering to salesperson ratio. There's one engineer for every salesperson, which is very unique,” said Paul Reichard, director of SEI's remote site division. “That gives us a lot of engineering bench strength. When customers come to us with a problem, we can do it from beginning to end and we can do it quickly.”
SEI's focus on engineering expertise and nimble innovation has led the company to develop a wide range of products.
Leveraging its knowledge of fabric materials and welding technologies, SEI has been manufacturing fuel bladders since the mid-1990s.
With more than 45 unique products spanning a variety of climatic conditions and bladder capacities, SEI's remote site products are in service with more than 50 military forces and commercial companies worldwide.
The crossover between military requirements and commercial opportunities has created an interesting path for SEI's product development.
According to Reichard, the need to position water close to a forest fire for Bambi Bucket operations led to the “dip tank” – think of a flexible, portable above-ground swimming pool.
The Canadian military saw the product and asked if it could be used as a drinking water supply for remote locations. So SEI reworked the dip tank, put a cover on it, and the “onion tank” was born.
To move the fluids in and out of bladders and tanks, SEI created a range of pumping systems. Most recently, the company developed a containerized system for Japan's military that will be pre-positioned for quick emergency response.
Then one day, a call came in from the Columbian military, a customer using SEI's bladder and pumping systems. The military was trying to solve its logistical problems with ground deliveries of fuel – their trucks were being hijacked or stolen.
“They took the smallest bladder tank we made – which is 5,000 gallons – put it in a DC-3 and asked us to come down to Columbia to show us what they did,” explained Reichard.
“The idea worked, and they had strapping systems to try and hold the thing down. But it was moving around, the straps were abrading, and it was leaking fuel in the aircraft.
“I was sitting there thinking, ‘This looks so dangerous,' and they asked, ‘Well, can you make it safer for us?'”
Yes, SEI could. And did.
Designed specifically for the safe and efficient air transport of fuels, SEI's Bulk Aviation Transport Tank – or BATT – is a tank within a tank.
The inner fuel resistant tank can store diesel, jet fuel or gasoline – or in the case of SEI's new Multi-fuel BATT, all three. To prevent the fuel from sloshing around in flight, the tank has a system of baffles – one version for airplane BATTs and one for helicopters, reflecting the differing in-flight dynamics.
The outer tank is also fuel resistant, and the flexible material has the strength to handle the stresses of transport, as well as being abrasion and puncture resistant.
The two tanks are connected at the ends with flanges and internal side straps, and the external tank has an integrated harness system to secure the BATT inside the aircraft.
Working with its suppliers, SEI specifies the properties of the materials it uses to make its products. After cutting the components, radio-frequency fabric welding creates a joint that's equal in tensile strength to the base level's properties. It's so strong, it's as if there isn't a weld.
The first BATT was delivered to the Columbian military in 2009. By 2012, the tanks were being sold to commercial operators in Canada.
The smallest BATTs can be transported in a de Havilland Otter or a Cessna Caravan. The biggest BATT holds 9,500 litres of fuel, sized for large cargo planes serving mining, resource, military or other remote facilities, for example. Aircraft such as the Boeing 737 or Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules can carry two BATT tanks at once.
When a BATT is emptied, it can be rolled up to a fraction of its filled size.
In Canada's North “a BATT tank and a ground bladder are a very efficient model for a small exploration site,” said Reichard.
“Compared to fuel drums, these systems are a lot less likely to have fuel spills and to cause injuries because they're not handled as much. From an environmental perspective, it's a cleaner site.”
SEI's portfolio covers aviation, fire suppression, fire, ignition, exploration and environmental management, including spill response and containment. This is serious business, balanced perhaps by the unique names bestowed upon the company's products.
When a wildfire team must fight fire with fire, SEI's Dragon Egg ignition spheres can be used to create a controlled burn. Safer than using open torches, crews spread Dragon Eggs over the burn area. Smaller than a ping-pong ball, the timing of each Egg's ignition is carefully controlled by the last-minute injection of a triggering chemical.
Also in SEI's product family are RainDrain, Drip Defender, and Spill Monkey fluid containment systems; Arctic King, Desert King and Jungle King bladder tanks; and Pumpkin and Heliwell water tanks.
“Our owner has always been very active in the naming process; he wants us to keep a light heart in it, but also look for uniqueness,” said Reichard.
So, how did the Bambi Bucket get its name?
Some believe that the iconic orange water bucket was named after the famous animated deer. Others think that it honours a waitress named Bambi who worked in a pub in Boise, Idaho, where forest firefighters hung out.
“Neither is true, and it's not a sexy story,” admitted Fukamati. He explained that in 1978, a marketer asked SEI founder Don Arney about a name for his soon-to-be industry-changing invention.
“Don had to come up with a name, and just out of the air he said, ‘We'll call it the Bambi Bucket.' Don was just joking, but his friend said, ‘It sounds good – it's a great name!'”
That's SEI's story, and they're sticking to it!
https://www.skiesmag.com/features/from-buckets-to-batts-the-sei-story/
4 janvier 2023 | Local, Aérospatial, Terrestre
Despite the ballyhoo that surrounded last year's announcement, it's becoming clear that the modernization of North American air defence systems — a plan to spend $4.9 billion over six years — has a long way to go and a number of key technical obstacles to overcome.
17 avril 2024 | Local, Terrestre
The new federal budget sets aside $2.72 billion in loans and donations for Ukraine in the current fiscal year, most of which is aimed at helping President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's government keep the embattled country’s finances afloat. And a lot of that money is already out the door.
18 octobre 2019 | Local, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
Defence takes a fifth of the federal budget and has often been a target for deficit cutters Murray Brewster The Conservatives have pledged to "protect" the budget of the Department of National Defence even as they work to eliminate the federal deficit. In their election platform, the Tories said they would find $5 billion in savings by cutting operational expenses, but were not clear on precisely what that meant, other than to say it would not affect services to Canadians. The Liberals, through their two-year-old defence policy, committed to increase defence spending by 70 per cent to $32 billion annually by 2024-25 — a program that would unfold at precisely the same time a potential Conservative government intends to cut expenditures. The Liberals have also set in motion plans to buy two of the military's biggest-ticket items — new fighter jets and navy frigates. Conservative leader Andrew Scheer said Wednesday his party would stick with those purchases, but would be more efficient. "We are committed to the funding allocated to the Department of National Defence," he said during a campaign stop in in southwestern Ontario. "We will not do what the Liberals did, which is waste hundreds of millions of dollars stopping and starting the procurement process." The Conservatives have pledged to depoliticize the process of buying military equipment and have complained about the Liberal government's delivery timelines and decisions, including the plan to purchase used Australian F-18s to supplement the existing fighter jet force until a decision is made on brand-new warplanes. Says money wasted "They have wasted so much money when it comes to procurement," Scheer said, adding that Conservatives would "protect the budgets of National Defence [and] we're going to ensure that the money that's allocated to National Defence is spent wisely." At least two experts wonder how the Conservatives can live up to that pledge in light of the fact the Defence Department is the single biggest discretionary expense on the federal balance sheet and the last two times Conservatives — or Liberals — tried to balance the budget, military spending took major hits. Under the government of former prime minister Stephen Harper, the defence budget was cut by $2.1 billion annually and the department racked up sizeable chunks of lapsed spending, money that was appropriated by Parliament, but not spent. The reduction took place after the Afghan war and the department faced concurrent spending cuts through the Conservative strategy review and deficit reduction action plan. Both Liberal and Conservative governments in the 1990s cut defence spending and postponed buying new equipment, most notably new maritime helicopters, which only came into service in the last few years Defence spending an obvious target "Balancing a federal budget without looking at defence spending is extraordinarily difficult, to impossible," said Dave Perry, an analyst and expert in defence spending at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. "Defence spending accounts for one-fifth of the federal budget." And even if the Conservatives did look for savings, a change to the accounting structure at Defence leaves little room for them to recoup much money by cancelling or postponing equipment purchases. Reducing the size of the military or the civil service was something previous governments did, but Perry said those kinds of cuts "take two years or more" to make their way through the system. Kevin Page, the former parliamentary budget officer and CEO of the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy, said much of what all of the parties are proposing — and their ability to deliver — is contingent on the kind of Parliament that is elected on Monday. CANADA VOTES How much will the defence file matter to voters? PBO pushes up cost estimate for Canada's frigate build by $8 billion In a minority government scenario, the Conservatives might find themselves struggling to deliver savings outside of the Defence Department, he suggested. Would need majority "If elected, I would assume the Conservatives would need a majority government to push through the savings on direct program spending – infrastructure, wage bills, other operations, corporate and development assistance," Page said. The Liberal record on defence spending is up for debate. An internal DND slide presentation, obtained by CBC News, lays out projections for the department going to up to the 2036-37 fiscal year. Faced with extraordinary pressure from the Trump administration to meet NATO's goal of earmarking two per cent of gross domestic product for military spending, the Liberal government committed to a 70 per cent increase by 2024-25. The Feb. 25, 2019 slide presentation shows that spending will peak in 2026-27 and begin to fall again in the preceding decade. Used Australian fighter jets could cost $1.1B: Parliamentary budget officer The document also shows that, for two years running, the Liberals have not spent as much as they planned on new equipment. While $12.7 billion was set aside in their plan between 2017-19 for new military gear, the Trudeau government only asked Parliament for permission to spend $8.34 billion — leaving $4.4 billion still in the treasury. The slide presentation said part of the reason is that some existing projects came in under budget, but in one-third of the instances the spending delay was because the Defence Department — or the federal government in general — could not get the projects organized. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/conservatives-defence-spending-1.5323618