Software for designing composite products

Citation

(2006), "Software for designing composite products", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 78 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2006.12778daf.008

Software for designing composite products

Software for designing composite products

Keywords: Aircraft,Aircraft components

VISTAGY, Inc., the developer of engineering software that provides specialised design functionality to commercial CAD/PDM/PLM systems, recently announced the release of FiberSIM 5.1, the latest version of its design environment for composite products. FiberSIM 5.1 provides new specialized tools that enable engineers working in commercial CAD systems to automate design processes early in product development. This results in more efficient and accurate manufacture of complex or large composite parts, including products produced in multiple stages.

“With FiberSIM 5.1, we've reinforced our commitment to helping engineers capitalise on the vast potential of composite parts and development processes so they can create cutting- edge, innovative products,” said Bob Flory, vice president of product development at VISTAGY, Inc. “By automating many of the most repetitive or complex composites design tasks early in development.

FiberSIM 5.1 enables engineers to select the optimum product design choices and manufacturing methods to reduce cycle time and costs. As a result, our customers will realize a significant competitive advantage with FiberSIM 5.1.”

FiberSIM 5.1 introduces a number of new features that enhance the latest composites design and manufacturing processes. The software provides three primary advantages:

Automation earlier in the product development process. Engineers who produce large or complex composite parts utilise FiberSIM to help them design and validate laminates, zones, layers and ply sequences. The software provides new capabilities to automate design methods earlier in product development for more efficient manufacture of composite parts. For example, the new Merge Model capability enables engineers to quickly and automatically divide an electronically generated model, such as a representation of an aircraft fuselage, into several separate models and combine them again at a later time. This capability allows a number of engineers to simultaneously work on the parts of a large composite product to significantly decrease development time. The Symmetric Laminate Utility generates a model, such as an aircraft's composite left wing section, and then applies all the data to automatically create a corresponding structure for the opposite, right-hand side, saving hours of manual design time.

Capabilities specifically designed to optimise various composites product development processes. Composite designs will not be economically feasible unless they are tailored to the specific manufacturing processes being used to produce them. The new Automated Deposition Design (ADD) option automates the creation of composite product geometry that is specific to manufacturing processes such as tape-laying or fiber placement, saving weeks of manual work for large structures. The new Extended Ramp Object, for example, extends boundaries of material and defines a natural drop-off to make it easier for a fiber placement machine to “ramp up” onto a tool and do its job properly. FiberSIM 5.1 provides unique tools for ply lay-up, material overlay, tape-laying and splicing that optimize composite designs for quicker downstream manufacturing. There are also new documentation enhancements, such as automatic generation of 2D plybooks that list the sequence of laminate plies, eliminating drawings and manual note- taking methods used prior to FiberSIM.

The creation of a complete product definition that can be easily leveraged downstream. With the breadth of new capabilities in FiberSIM 5.1 and support of open standards, engineers can create a complete composite design definition with all associated citations and data necessary to drive downstream processes. Using the power of Extensible Markup Language (XML), the complete data set can be easily shared across the enterprise. As a result, engineers understand the history and context of design details, which helps minimise potential errors downstream, achieve desired part quality, and meet specifications in a fraction of the time of traditional processes.

Details available from: VISTAGY, Inc., Tel: +1.781.250.6895, e-mail: michael. antonellis@vistagy.com web site: www.vistagy.com/products/ fibersim.htm