Service Life Extension of Parachutes with Use of Non-Desctructive and Partially Destructive Testing Methods of Textile Materials

Abstract

Abstract The specificity of personal rescue and reserve parachutes is the fact that they are practically never used for jumping during their service life as they are intended for use only in emergency situations. Therefore, these parachutes throughout the entire period of use are only periodically aired and repacked every 6-12 months. Airing and repacking is necessary even if the parachute is only stored. Rescue and reserve parachutes’ components wear unevenly because the canopy with the suspension lines is inside the container and the cover, while the external components of the harness and the container undergo typical operational wear. Therefore, the service life of rescue parachutes can even reach 20 years (this refers to the canopy with the suspension lines alone). During normal exploitation, parachutes are subjected to non-destructive visual and tactile inspection in preparation for packing. When a parachute reaches its maximum service life, extension of its service life can be calculated based on its technical condition. The procedure for extending parachute’s service life involves non-destructive tests at a fabric air permeability test stand and partially destructive tests at the strength test stand. In the paper, both methods are described and their advantages and disadvantages are discussed. Also, observations some regarding the packers’ work and the desired new properties of raw materials that could be introduced to the parachute industry are presented.