couteau thermique

CONT: Les entreprises et les institutions des Pays-Bas [...] participent à plus de 20 projets technologiques, par exemple : couteau thermique pour les batteries de panneaux solaires, installations de simulation, microscopes pour la recherche en microgravité, dispositifs biologiques, filtres biologiques, capteurs, systèmes microtechnologiques et d'appui à l'équipage.

CONT: Fokker Space is Europe's leading solar array manufacturer for spacecraft. Its solar array release system, which employs the principle of cutting of an aramid hold-down cable by a thermal knife, has numerous advantages over, for instance, pyrotechnic devices. The tension in the cable decreases gradually, preventing shocks and because this system is insensitive to electro-magnetic disturbances the possibility of a spontaneous release is eliminated. The thermal knives can be used a number of times, allowing performance tests to be performed on actual flight hardware.