Surface Flatness, now Faraday cages

[Bob Richards]

I mentioned that the material used to construct RF shielded rooms would make a good flat worksurface. Then somebody mentioned "Faraday cage" -- completely off topic for the group. Funny, though, it made it back to "don't build a fuselage out of this stuff". 
 
You mentioned full-sized aircraft fuselages being Faraday cages, they are to some extent. Not only can the fuse shell keep signals out, they can also keep signals in. Very high field strengths can be achieved with very little power, and nodes can exist where reflections arrive in phase. This is a very big problem, and compliance test standards (such as DO-160) exist to insure that systems inside an aircraft don't emit strong signals that can interfere with other systesms, and can also still operate when interference is present. This is also why they don't want computers and electronic equipment operating during the times that the instrumentation is most needed (takeoff and landing, especially in IFR conditions). 
 
Bob Richards.


Rcmaster199 at aol.com wrote:
The tangents that some threads create are often much more interesting than the original intent of the thread. 
 
Keith I would say it's not a good idea. If you built a fuse out of this material, (done everyday BTW),  I suggest you build it large enough to accomodate the person flying it (vbg). I know Bill, Don Ramsey and Al Glenn and probably several more, flew or still fly "Faraday Cages" for a living
 
Now, how we went from measuring surface flatness to "shielding" devices from EMI/RFI (regardless of what the emitting source is), is beyond me
 
MattK

 
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