Citation
(1998), "Lockheed Martin choose IBM and Dassault technology to re-engineer design processes for C-130 transport", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 70 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.1998.12770baf.003
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 1998, MCB UP Limited
Lockheed Martin choose IBM and Dassault technology to re-engineer design processes for C-130 transport
Software solutions for aerospace
Lockheed Martin choose IBM and Dassault technology to re-engineer design processes for C-130 transport
IBM and Dassault Systemes have announced that Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems (LMASC) has selected CATIA-CADAM Drafting products and ProductManager product data management system as the tools to facilitate a re-engineering of the design and manufacturing processes for its C-130 aircraft programme.
Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems, based in Marietta, Georgia, USA, is a world-wide leader in the design and manufacture of aeronautical systems. Last February, LMASC announced a long-term strategic partnership with IBM and Dassault Systemes for the development of an integrated virtual development environment. This announcement will make the C-130 programme part of LMASC's state-of-the-art co-ordinated product definition and release environment.
LMASC has been designing and manufacturing C-130 aircraft in Marietta for more than 30 years, using a combination of paper-based drawing techniques and host-based CADAM tools. The C-130J Hercules, which is currently in production, is one of the most advanced tactical transport aircraft being built today. Historically, distribution of all documents for the C-130 programme has been on paper or aperture cards.
With this new initiative, LMASC made a commitment to bring these design data under the control of IBM's ProductManager, using a combination of CATIA-CADAM Drafting and CATIA-CADAM Hybrid Raster.
According to Steve Pancoast, IBM Aerospace Industry Executive, "Lockheed has made a serious commitment to re-engineering across-the-board. We're excited about being able to support this effort, with a broad integrated array of hardware and software solutions, support and services."
The selection of CATIA-CADAM Drafting products was based on a demanding yet practical set of decision criteria established by the technical and management team. These included: retaining and improving the high level of productivity and user satisfaction previously experienced by CADAM users; support of both UNIX and Windows NT platforms as well as interoperability with existing CADAM data; ability to convert and update scanned paper drawings electronically in a hybrid (combined) raster and CAD format; and full integration with IBM's Product Manager.
LMASC has already begun migrating its design processes to CATIA-CADAM Drafting and ProductManager. By year-end, LMASC expects to be running more than 150 seats of CATIA-CADAM Drafting, plus 50 seats of CATlA-CADAM Hybrid Raster, to support this programme. The CATIA-CADAM Drafting seats will be running on IBM RS/6000 workstations and IBM PCs running Microsoft Windows NT. As part of the ProductManager implementation, LMASC has already begun creating an engineering data vault, scanning more than 18,000 active engineering drawings for the C-130 programme into the ProductManager system. LMASC has begun using ProductManager for engineering information control and release management.
"By using CATIA-CADAM Solutions and ProductManager, we are taking major steps towards a true virtual product development environment. Throughout our organisation, engineers and others will have the information they need at their fingertips, regardless of where it's physically stored or what software system it's part of," said Douglas Gates, LMASC Manager of Product Data Services. "The power of these two systems, and their tight integration with each other, will help us reduce the use of manual drawings and their associated overhead and span time for changes, modernise our release process, cut design schedules and improve communications with our partners, suppliers and the government.
"We are delighted in working so closely and effectively with Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems and with IBM in implementing this far reaching solution," states Philippe Forestier, General Manager of Dassault Systemes of America. "This teamwork benefits not only Lockheed Martin, but provides the knowledge and experience that will benefit the many users who seek the advantages of the CATIA-CADAM solutions family as a truly integrated component of their corporate product process."
CATIA-CADAM Drafting
CATIA-CADAM Drafting products are believed to be the most advanced yet easy to use layout and drafting systems available. They bring the intuitive and productive CADAM 2 1/2 D design and drafting paradigm onto the Windows NT platform and into the CATIA solutions family.
CATIA-CADAM Solutions Version 4 provides solutions for integrated product and process development and teamwork optimisation. It includes an evolutionary architecture which enables customer growth and leading-edge applications for task optimisation. CATIA and CADAM are developed by Dassault Systèmes and marketed and supported worldwide by IBM and its Business Partners. These solutions are leaders in the CADICAM/CAE marketplace with more than 9,000 customers and 100,000 seats.
IBM ProductManager
ProductManager is IBM's enterprise-wide, scaleable PDM system which runs as a client/server application on a wide range of UNIX servers, including IBM's RS/6000. ProductManager enables manufacturers to streamline the design and manufacturing process and reduce both design costs and cycle times. It acts as a data vault, providing a single source of product information and offering users fast and easy access to the most current data, wherever the data reside.
ProductManager uses object-oriented technology to deliver pre-packaged, yet flexible, functionality that is easily adapted to a company's business processes. It also offers an intuitive graphical user interface, plus extensive tailoring capabilities for users and a powerful customisation tool kit for extending the product.
IBM and Dassault Systemes also report the introduction of new products and capabilities for CATIA-CADAM Solutions that extend a customer's ability to handle large-scale digital mock-up and add significant new generative capabilities, particularly for the automotive and aerospace industries.
With six new products and enhancements to 43 others, CATIA-CADAM Solutions Version 4 Release 1.9 give unmatched capabilities in areas such as shape engineering, composite and sheet metal design, analysis and manufacturing inspection. This new release brings the CATIA portfolio from 107 to 113 products.
The enhanced 4D Navigator high-performance graphic window now supports the form, fit and function simulations that are crucial in the digital mock-up process, offering design review with real-time clash detection, dynamic sectioning, fitting simulations and kinematics studies.
The new products support CATIA's paradigm shift in modelling by providing more generative and specification driven sets of products that claim to significantly improve speed and productivity. With this new design approach, users define design and manufacturing specifications and CATIA automatically generates the overall geometry and manages all the topological and geometrical conditions.
In the new release, automotive customers benefit from increased productivity in the design of body panels and dies, powertrain, composite and plastic parts. Aerospace customers also benefit from new products that speed the design of sheet metal parts for airframes and parts manufactured from composite materials.
Product highlights claimed of CATIA 4.1.9 include:
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Body-in-white templates (new) offers a new way to design complex thin parts, such as automobile inner body panels and body stiffeners. Body-in-white templates offer increased productivity, enabling design teams to define and reuse design and manufacturing specifications. Surfaces can then be automatically generated by sweeping these shapes across 3D curves resulting in high quality surface and skins and avoiding costly iterations. This new product complements the hybrid modelling technologies already available in CATIA-CADAM Solutions.
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Generative aerospace sheet metal design (new) meets the needs of sheet metal part designers in the aerospace industry. It offers enhanced productivity and improved design quality for folded and flattened parts. It also allows the capture of the company's knowledge, including design and manufacturing constraints, facilitating the design of hydro-pressed airframes. The product also includes a predefined catalogue of features that are unique to aerospace sheet metal parts.
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Generative composites covering (new) speeds up and automates the early design cycle for composite part definition, where many design iterations occur. Operating from a customisable set of design rules, the user automatically transforms the iso-structure areas identified by finite element analysis into ply and stacking sequence definitions. This eliminates the errors inherent in a manual process, allowing high quality preliminary designs to be produced quickly.
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Generative part dynamic analysis (new) enables users in all industries to identify and eliminate problems from resonant vibration early in the design process by allowing them to perform dynamic (modal) analysis. It is easy to learn and use, and offers easy-to understand visualisation of analysis results. The designer-oriented CATIA Generative Analysis family now provides solutions for static and dynamic analysis as well as design optimisation.
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Inspection planning assistant (new) offers manufacturers increased productivity in the generation of inspection plans to be run on coordinate measuring machines, thus enhancing quality control of moulds and parts. It is most applicable to repetitive manufacturing, and to industries such as aerospace, where the conformance of all parts needs to be tightly controlled. It provides automated 3D geometric dimensions and interpretation of tolerance data for easy and efficient part control. These plans can include the 3D manufacturing tolerances stored as part of the CATIA model.
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AEC raceway design (new) - makes it easier to design and lay out cable trays for customers in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) and shipbuilding industries. It includes a starter library of industry-standard components. The AEC raceway design product employs an innovative parametric-driven catalogue and rules based design checking to ensure a high level of productivity and quality.
For additional information, visit the CATIA-CADAM Solutions website at http://www.catia.ibm.com
Details from IBM UK Ltd. Tel: +44 (0) 1926 464449.