STRESS DETECTOR IS TESTED IN SAUGUS.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Staff Writer

SAUGUS - A newly designed fiber-optic stress detection system - one that could identify the weak spots on an aircraft in flight - is being put to the test at National Technical Systems' Saugus plant.

In a joint venture with Intelligent Optical Systems of Torrance, the Calabasas-based NTS has begun testing the hairlike sensors that would identify the smallest of cracks in large components such as a wing or fuselage.

The system senses the high-frequency sound from a tiny crack and sends a signal to a display, alerting pilots in time to correct the problem or take emergency measures.

``There was a plane in Hawaii where the top ripped off,'' NTS Chief Financial Officer Lloyd Blonder said, referring to a 1988 Aloha Airlines incident that killed a flight attendant and injured 61 of the 94 people on board.

``There was a weakness in the fuselage that caused an actual separation in the airplane. If you had the technology to measure those cracks, you'd fix that before it happened.''

The joint venture bolsters NTS's continued comeback, particularly the resurrection of its Saugus testing plant in the Golden Valley area. Facing near closure in the early '90s, business is gaining at the testing center, where commercial rather than defense-related projects are the focus.

``The Saugus facility is actually booming,'' Blonder said. ``It's doing the best it's done in years.''

The testing center employs about 80, and will not add staff for the new project. Testing is scheduled to begin this week, and is open ended.

``If things look good in the first series, they might start moving forward,'' he said. ``It all depends on initial results.''

NTS is folding the work into another project using traditional methods of stress testing, Blonder said. Results of the work with conventional strain gauges will be compared with the fiber-optics system.

``We will get readings off both and compare, and if you're getting the same reading on the new system as you are on the known technology, that's the proof you want,'' he said.

If testing is successful, the results will be included in the companies' application to the Federal Aviation Administration to market the sensors to commercial industries. The technology is not just limited to testing aircraft, Blonder said. It could be applied to new types of plastics and fiberglass, such as material used in sports cars.

``What they do now is they take a car and put it on a machine that shakes the car,'' he said. ``You need to have computers read the input as the car is shaking, and it's hard to put all those computers in the car and measure the stress. This technology is very lightweight, very easy to do.''

Under the joint venture, NTS will work with Intelligent Optical Systems in marketing and distribution. IOS is a research and development company, specializing in fiber-optic sensing and monitoring technologies.

Blonder classified the testing as ``benign'' compared with past projects at the plant that have involved exposing missiles, rockets and satellites to extreme conditions, an often volatile exercise. NTS, whose mainstays were the defense and aerospace industries, was forced to close plants when the economy shifted and such contracts dried up. But the company made a successful transition to commercial applications and the Saugus lab was revived.

Last year, the operation was briefly threatened, company officials said, when the city of Santa Clarita sought easements for the new Golden Valley Road and the William S. Hart Union High School District wanted to encroach on company land for its planned Golden Valley High School.

All sides, Blonder said, are reaching compromises. The road is under construction, bypassing much of the NTS facility, and the Hart district modified the school plans.

``It seems to be working, and we're not going anywhere,'' he said.