To say that the Aerospace industry is a technological leader would be an understatement. Not only is it responsible for advancing the state of the art of Computational Simulation (something we are very passionate about here at Fastway), but it is also the leader in Data Management Processes as well.
Most designers and engineers are familiar with the term "internal customer" - meaning, when we provide a service (CAD design, FEA analysis, create a blueprint, etc) we do so for personnel who are downstream from us, and internal to the company, and not necessarily our "actual" customers. Examples of internal customers could be Production, Quality Assurance, Marketing and Sales, or even the Executive Leadership Team.
Well, what if you sent all of that digital Engineering Data to your external customers as well? What if your customer received a serialized digital file with all kinds of Engineering CAD, FEA, and CFD data embedded into it? That is the concept behind the Digital Twin effort, and this innovative approach is being investigated in conjunction with the U.S. Air Force through a project called Airframe Digital Twin Spiral 1.
As Aviation Week recently published, the Digital Twin would be delivered with the final product to the end user, and could be used to track the Aircraft Health through its entire life by comparing actual sensor data to the known performance & reliability envelope as defined by the FEA/CFD simulation results as provided by the Design Engineers. This means better prediction of potential failures, which results in higher reliability.
There's one small problem. As the article highlights, "... to fully numerically simulate aircraft and engines will require further development of the software tools. [NASA] warns that significant advances in simulation-based analysis and design are required to achieve the goal of modeling a complete aircraft throughout its flight envelope."
Not every industry is as advanced as the Aerospace industry, and that's where we can help you out. Is your CAD/CAE data organized? Do you lose time trying to train new Designers and Engineers on how to pick up where previous employees left off? Whether you're new to CAD/CAE and don't know how to start or you're creating so much CAD/CAE data you don't know what to do with it, Fastway Engineering can help you out. We've created, organized, and managed thousands of CAD assemblies and millions of FEA/CFD results. In doing so, we've created industry leading best practices, and have bundled it with creative custom training packages.
Contact Us Today to learn how to get and stay organized, because who knows - maybe one day, you'll be sending all of your Engineering data out with your product!
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