DK290 – Recorder Beacon

The DK290 ULD is Dukane Seacom’s advanced ULD that leverages the design-features of the existing DK120/90 with improved battery safety features including a new non-restricted Class-9 lithium batteryclass9 and containment of thermal runaway. It is designed to aid in the retrieval of the Cockpit Voice and Flight Data Recorders (CVFDR).

With the hazards of lithium batteries emerging in the aviation industry, the DK290 was developed with battery safety at the forefront of all design considerations resulting in a ULD with reduced lithium content and capable of safely containing a thermal runaway event.

The DK290 was designed with the uncompromising goal of improving battery safety onboard the aircraft and during shipment while ensuring the functionality required by TSO-C121b and TSO-C142b. The Dukane Seacom DK290 and its batteries have been tested and certified to applicable requirements specified in SAE AS8045A, RTCA/DO-160G, and RTCA /DO-227A standards. The ULD meets or exceeds the minimum performance standards required for TSO-C121b approval.

The DK290 utilizes the field-proven Lithium Manganese Dioxide battery chemistry avoiding the use of other contentious chemistries such as Lithium Thionyl Chloride and Lithium Sulfuryl Chloride, which have been deemed unfit for use by many in the aviation industry. In addition, our Lithium Manganese Dioxide battery chemistry is far superior to unproven Alkaline technology for this application in terms of performance in harsh environments and temperature extremes over a six-year battery life.