Villinger R&D LiteHeat

With LITEHEAT, the Villinger GmbH group has set a new comfort standard for the future of aviation.  Until now, only first-class passengers had access to the highest quality surroundings and technology.  While other aspects of the cabin seem to improve each year, cabin heating technology has in fact not been improved in decades – Until LITEHEAT:

Today’s state-of-the-art cabin heating systems use hot air vented through a number of small openings in the cabin. High volumetric air flow is necessary to maintain comfortable cabin temperatures – often resulting in some passengers using of blankets to stay warm.

The bottom line is that today’s forced-air heating solutions are simply not capable of providing the type of thermal comfort you would expect in a business or first class cabin, without requiring an enormous amount of heating power.

LITEHEAT is a new heating technology for aircraft cabins that creates the same thermal environment and comfort levels that you’d expect at home, needing just a fraction of the heating power of conventional systems.

Utilizing a unique, electrically heated coating technology (referred to here as the “heater layer”) that can be applied on a variety of surfaces in the cabin, it is the first cabin heating system to rely on infrared radiation (IR) rather than convective heating. An IR source transfers heat to a body or object at a distance, exactly how the Sun warms the Earth. It is therefore guaranteed to be a much more pleasant and comfortable experience for passengers. If contact heat is required, LITEHEAT systems can be manufactured accordingly to reduce the infrared emissions and generate contact heat only.

The installation of LITEHEAT could not be easier:

Similar to paint, the heater layer is applied on the surface as an ultra-thin coating (<0.2 mm thickness; <150g/m2 added weight) and matches the exact shape and geometry of the part. Once covered with any kind of finishing material chosen by the customer, LITEHEAT heaters become completely imperceptible. When applied to the back of a sidewall panel, for example, the outward appearance of the panel is unchanged. As voltage is applied to the heater layer, an even, full-face heat is generated instantly and the passenger immediately experiences pleasant IR heating.

Besides increasing cabin comfort and reducing power consumption, another advantage of LITEHEAT systems is their self-controlling effect that prevents surface hot spots, or an uncontrolled local heat build-up. Furthermore, LITEHEAT systems have a very high damage tolerance and can be easily repaired or replaced in case of severe damage.

Put simply: LITEHEAT converts various parts and surface areas in the cabin, such as sidewall panels, ceilings, floors, doors, instrument panels, and more, into large scale infrared radiators, without changing their shape or appearance in any way.

Whether LITEHEAT technology is used to fully replace bleed air in your airplane or to simply get rid of cold spots inside the cabin – Thermal comfort is boosted to a whole new level.