Kaman Aerospace Chooses VISTAGY's FiberSIM Composites Engineering Software

By DE Editors

Kaman Helicopters has entered into an agreement to license VISTAGY, Inc.’s 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 challenges and facilitating a smooth hand-off of composite manufacturing data to the shop floor.

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 is using FiberSIM within its Siemens NX computer-aided-design (CAD) system. FiberSIM is integrated into 3D commercial CAD systems to provide functionality for developing products made of advanced composite materials.

"Working with composites is extremely time-consuming and tedious," says 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."

For more information, visit VISTAGY.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company's website.