CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
7 April 2010
Product News
VISTAGY and Assembly Guidance Systems Deliver Enhanced In-Process Quality Control for Composites Manufacturing
VISTAGY, Inc. and Assembly Guidance Systems (Chelmsford, Mass.), a supplier of high performance laser projection systems for manual manufacturing and quality monitoring, announced that they have integrated FiberSIM® composites engineering software and Automatic Ply Verification (APV). This integration will enable users to quantify and document that hand-laid composites parts have been fabricated correctly. Inspecting each ply during the manufacturing process not only increases part quality, it also reduces costs, decreases cycle times and ensures that finished parts are true to the design.
VISTAGY’s FiberSIM provides an end-to-end composites engineering solution that supports everything from analysis, design and manufacturing to quality inspection. As part of that solution, FiberSIM automatically generates files from the 3D CAD model that control the laser projection system during ply layup. The enhancement announced today will enable users to simultaneously generate APV files, giving the operator a complete set of manufacturing commands.
APV is a feature of the LASERGUIDE laser projection system from Assembly Guidance Systems and is used to direct accurate layup of composite plies. Accepted by the Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Defense for inspection of flight-critical characteristics, APV replaces human inspection with an automated system. As an operator steps through the hand layup sequence with a LASERGUIDE system, APV commands are automatically displayed when a ply inspection is specified.
LASERGUIDE projects the position for the operator to place a High Accuracy Manually Positioned Inspector (HAMPI) unit, which can verify material type, ply presence, sequence, location and fiber orientation, and also detect foreign objects. LASERGUIDE will not proceed to the next pattern unless the inspection results fall within manufacturing tolerances.
“By integrating APV and FiberSIM we have enabled the computer-generated precision of composite design to control the entire manufacturing process,” said Scott Blake, president of Assembly Guidance Systems. “The manufacturing engineer need only verify the tolerances that will be applied to the layup. That will lead to a less costly and time-consuming process.”
“Our solutions are focused on developing standardized, end-to-end processes from conceptual design to final inspection,” said Steve Luby, president and CEO of VISTAGY. “APV is an innovative capability that works in conjunction with FiberSIM to enhance the accuracy of the composite layup process, which is a key concern throughout the industry. We’re pleased to be working with Assembly Guidance Systems to help customers overcome this concern by validating that parts are manufactured as they are designed.”
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