Steve Luby , VISTAGY
Release Date: 2011-04-25
Steve Luby, Founder, President and CEO of VISTAGY, has been interviewed by RussianAvia.net for a special report on Russia’s special metals alloys and composites to discuss the use of VISTAGY software in aviation and composite construction and the current outlook for composite aircraft/airframe manufacturing.What industries hold the most potential for VISTAGY’s products and what is the role of the aerospace sector in the company’s portfolio?
Aerospace has played a dominant role in the founding of the company and continues to be very important today. As an example, we’ve been working with a number of companies involved with the development of composite components for the Joint Striker Program—such as Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and BAE Systems—since 1997. When we started composites were mostly being used for non-structural parts. By contrast, today we are working with the leading aerospace companies to develop entire composite airframes. The amount of composites used in commercial aircraft has increased to over 50 percent by weight in the past several decades and continues to grow as the advantages of high strength-to-weight and high stiffness-to-weight structures become more exploitable.
There are a number of other industries that have enthusiastically embraced composites, including wind energy, automotive, jet engines, and marine. The expertise that VISTAGY has accumulated in aerospace has helped us develop an important presence in these industries.
What software does your company offer for improving aircraft design and manufacturing?
We offer VISTAGY AeroSuite, which enables aircraft manufacturers to manage the evolving product development process and deliver optimized parts and assemblies. While the CAD and PLM systems are the primary components of the engineering IT environment, these systems lack the specialization required for effective and efficient aerostructures development. AeroSuite consists of FiberSIM composites engineering software, SyncroFIT for designing and manufacturing airframe assemblies, and the Quality Planning Environment (QPE) to streamline the first-article inspection process. The final piece of the AeroSuite is our professional services. VISTAGY’s top priority is to ensure that our customers maximize the return from the software products they purchase from us. To achieve this, we provide a variety of professional services that are tailored to the unique needs of each customer, including process audits, best practices, implementation services, and training.
How critical is software to designing and building today’s composite aircraft structures?
Software is an essential part of the overall aerostructures development process, especially due to the complexity of working with composites. Aerostructures development presents significant challenges for a variety of reasons: First, there are huge volumes of data to manage, and that volume is growing with the increased role of composites. If aerospace companies didn’t use specialized software in the design and manufacture of aircraft, managing the sheer volume of information would literally take forever. Additionally, there is the need to manage the constant and inevitable changes that occur during the course of an aircraft program. Further, since modern aircraft are being designed and manufactured by geographically diverse partners, it’s critical to standardize tools and processes to avoid common and frequent communication problems. Finally, specialized software enables the manufacturer to design with consideration for downstream reuse of engineering data throughout the enterprise and supply chain. For all these reasons, software is indispensable to the designing and building of composite aircraft structures.
What are some of the technical difficulties airframe manufacturers encounter with composites, and what benefits are provided by today’s airframe development process software?
Composites introduce some level of uncertainty and variability compared to the well-understood structural and manufacturing behavior of other materials, such as aluminum. Composites design requires a balance between the geometric requirements, the material form, and the manufacturing process. For example, a monolithic skin panel, a t-shaped stringer, and a sandwich panel fairing must be treated differently. Similarly, materials such as woven, unidirectional, and NCF [non-crimp fabric] present unique design and manufacturing implications. Finally, manufacturing processes, such as hand layup, automated tape laying, automated fiber placement, and forming, need to be taken into consideration. The specific combination of these variables influences the design approach and, ultimately, the cost and quality of the finished product. Obviously, balancing all of these elements is a significant technical challenge.
However, airframe development process software offers a number of benefits. First, it enables the engineer to understand the implications of making design changes and rapidly implementing them. Next, it allows the user to design for the manufacturing process. It enables producibility assessments to be accomplished during the design phase, allowing engineers to make better-informed decisions earlier in the process to avoid costly rework and engineering changes. Non-value-added tasks can be automated to allow more time for optimizing the design and implementing innovative new ideas. By performing more iterations, the user has a better chance to optimize the design. Finally, manufacturing equipment—such as ply nesting/cutting, laser projection systems, automated fiber-deposition machines, automated drilling and fastening systems, and NDI inspection equipment—can all be fed data automatically. Ultimately, what this means is delivery schedules, program goals, and product performance goals can be met.
What’s the current outlook for composite aircraft/airframe manufacturing?
All new aircraft programs, such as the Boeing 787, Airbus A-350, Bombardier CSeries, LearJet 85 business jet, the MS-21, and Comac 919, to name just a few, incorporate a significant level of composites. In many cases, composites amount to more than 50 percent of the structure by weight. Right now, the wings and empennage are typically made entirely out of composites. In other cases, composites are used to manufacture complete fuselage skins and substructure. Composites will only become more prominent going forward.
Mr. Luby, what would be your final message to the readers of RussianAvia.net and “Russia’s special metals alloys and composites” report?
VISTAGY has made a significant investment in developing industry-specific solutions and reaching out to customers across the world and our growth validates that strategy. Yet I think we’ve barely scratched the surface of the potential of composites in a number of industries. Composites are transforming many industries and our products are helping to drive that transformation by providing support for the entire product development process. As a result, I believe that VISTAGY’s solutions will continue to resonate with global manufacturers and suppliers. We are particularly pleased to be working with more and more customers in the Russian market. We view this as one of the most dynamic, critical aerospace markets and believe that it will only continue to grow in influence in the world of aviation. We are excited about the opportunity to help Russian firms expand their composites expertise so they can maximize their potential for success.
| Company: | VISTAGY |
| Position: | Founder, President and CEO |
| Country: | @ Global |