Design and development of a pyrotechnic arming and firing unit

The design and development presented in this paper are the results of a programme, founded by ESA/ESTEC and perfonred by Christian Rovsing A/S af 1984, to design, build and test a representative section of a Pyrotechnic Arming and Firing unit and to establish an overall pyrotechnic system design concept, which is carrr patible with Ariane and Space shuttle launchers and launch sites. The design is adaptable and re-usable on rrost spacecraft programmes and thus eliminates the necessity of redesign and requalification for different programmes and improves the confidence in the reliability.