evacuation slide fabric failures
 

Anyone have first hand knowledge of evacuation slide/slide raft failure or problems due to fabric issues?

Slide fabric failures
 

With all the aircraft slide sample testing I have been involved with on different aircraft I have never had a failure due to fabric issues..
Maybe a different story from a workshop perspective.

Found failures due to cables not connected to firing bottles, safety pins left in bottles, pressure bottle leakage and unable to fully open door and door hinge operating chain not able to pull door. Slide air motors unable to fully inflate the slide, fan seizure. Slide girt bar not properly attached to the floor in auto mode, broken linkage..... these are a few from memory.

TW

That's a very broad question in one respect.

I suspect, that, most of us have experienced problems with partial inflation of time expired slides, albeit not on a regular basis, over the years. Edited to say Tinwacker's post above summates these problems perfectly.

The fabric however, for obvious reasons when packed, is not an aspect maintenance engineers come into contact with.

Could you be more specific as to the basis of your question please.

When I was involved with sample testing of slides with a previous employer, it was always 'time expired' slides deployed as they would be going to the workshop for strip and inspection.
High speed cameras were set up to film the opening and control of the slide, all in a matter of seconds.
Rare to see a slide not full inflate once out of the box.
Failure of the cabin door to open automatically or the slide to leave the box was more likely but then the door can be assisted and the slide manually fired for a successful operation, at times, in the eyes of the CAA to monitor.

Good fun for the apprentices to jump down onto the slides....:ok:

TW

Yes I wish I could be more specific but with reasons I can't get into at this time. But this will become much clearer hopefully sooner than later. How about leaking or slides cocked at an angle when inflated.

Seem to recall slide fabric became an issue (AD) about 15 years ago when it was discovered that the rubber coating was deteriorating and a fabric life was established to capture this! Not in a position, retired to look at records but we had some failures in fabric seams during test deployment and workshop inspection of classic B747 units.

Most slides other than over wing ones (housed outside of pressurised area), have a 1 year inspection interval after reaching 15 years of age.
Overhaul is normally every 3 years for the majority of a/c types.

Depends on the manufacturer.

There are several EASA AD's for the A320 series which relate to slide failure to deploy. One of which refers to torn aspirators which may initially seem to be fabric related (actually related to poor positioning of the aspirator and subsequent damage during deployment)

If you've found a problem with a cabin evacuation device I suggest you report it to both the manufacturer and the relevant authority, so that they may investigate and rectify via SB or even AD.