VISTAGY, Inc., announced that Kaman Helicopters, a division of Kaman Aerospace Corporation has entered into an agreement to license FiberSIM® composites engineering software. The software will be used to streamline the design–to–manufacturing process for large composite helicopter blades by providing early visibility into producibility challenges and facilitating a smooth hand-off of composite manufacturing data to the shop floor.

Based upon an extensive evaluation, Kaman estimates that FiberSIM will enable the firm to reduce ply development time from 180 to 40 hours, a savings of 78 percent, and average part layup time from 32 to 20 hours, a savings of 38 percent.

Kaman Helicopters, which is an OEM and provider of rotor blades and major subcontract assemblies, components and detail parts, will leverage VISTAGY’s composites expertise by employing its professional services organization to help develop and implement best practices for standardizing composites development processes. Kaman Helicopters is using FiberSIM within its Siemens NX CAD system. FiberSIM is integrated into major 3D commercial CAD systems to provide 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 firm expects to 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. Two different suppliers of laser projection equipment recommended VISTAGY to Kaman Helicopters.

Vistagy
www.vistagy.com

Kaman Helicopters
www.kamanaero.com

::Design World::

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Filed Under: Aerospace + defense, 3D CAD, Materials • advanced, Software

 

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