Aerospace company also expecting reduction of average part lay-up time
WALTHAM, Mass.—Kaman Helicopters, a division of Kaman Aerospace Corporation, has entered into an agreement to license FiberSIM® composites engineering software from VISTAGY, according to a recent announcement by VISTAGY. The software, which is said to provide early visibility into producibility challenges and facilitate a smooth hand-off of composite manufacturing data to the shop floor, will be used by Kaman to streamline the design–to–manufacturing process for large composite helicopter blades. Kaman estimates that FiberSIM will enable the company to reduce ply development time from 180 to 40 hours, a 78 percent saving, and to reduce average part layup time from 32 to 20 hours, a saving of 38 percent.
Kaman Helicopters is an OEM and a provider of rotor blades and major subcontract assemblies, components, and detail parts. The company, which is using FiberSIM within its Siemens NX computer-aided-design (CAD) system, will tap VISTAGY’s composites expertise by employing its professional services organization to help develop and implement best practices for standardizing composites development processes. FiberSIM is integrated into major 3D commercial CAD systems to provide what VISTAGY calls “powerful functionality, specifically for developing products made of advanced composite materials.”
Kaman Helicopters selected FiberSIM because defining ply flat patterns for each ply in a composite design was “taking too much time.” By implementing FiberSIM, the company expects to significantly reduce the hours required for ply development and layup, streamline its manufacturing process, and eventually eliminate the use of Mylar patterns. Kaman Helicopters is using the software to define flat patterns and generate data to drive its laser projection system.
“Working with composites is extremely time-consuming and tedious,” said Tim Bates, general manager of Kaman Helicopters’ Blade Center of Excellence and Subcontract Product Group. “By adopting FiberSIM, we expect to be able to automate non-value added tasks to achieve significant productivity gains, improve overall part quality and repeatability, and increase our throughput.”
VISTAGY and FiberSIM are registered trademarks or trademarks of VISTAGY, Inc.
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