CompositesWorld
Issue link: https://cw.epubxp.com/i/891910
9 CompositesWorld.com Material Traceability ABOUT THE AUTHOR Najib Baig is product manager – materials innovation at materials information technology company Granta Design (Cambridge, UK). Responsible for product management and strategic product direction, his specific responsibilities include management of Granta's additive manufacturing, simulation and composites products. In that capacity, he has worked with dozens of leading engineering organizations — in the aerospace, automotive and other industries — to meet challenges related to materials and process information management. Second, find a suitable database for information storage. Comp- osites data are complex, with anisotropic material properties represented in multidimensional ways. For a single composite system, there might be volumes of data from multiple batches of resins and reinforcements, multiple laminates and multiple test coupons that represent different tests, such as tensile, compres- sion and shear. Managing all of this in tools such as Excel or in nonspecialized databases would prove unsustainable, long-term, for obvious reasons. Effective management. A sustainable way is to use dedi- cated materials data management software that can manage the complexity and the volume of composites materials information. e most important thing to get right is the database schema — the data structure that defines what data types can be stored, and their inter-relationships. A schematic of the composites data schema developed by Granta Design, in collaboration with the members of the Material Data Management Consortium (MDMC), is shown in Fig. 1 (p. 8). Software tools were developed to import, analyze and manage the data — and to enable engineers to search, browse and apply it. A sample datasheet is shown in Fig. 2 (p. 8). A case in point. Airbus Helicopter (Marignane, France) imple- mented the GRANTA MI system noted above to support its strategy for rationalizing materials sources and to ensure all details of the composites materials were captured — from materials specs and testing to design information. Its requirements were to create a single source of company materials knowledge and to create a consistent and efficient workflow for test data management. As a result of this project, Airbus Helicopters ensured critical traceability of its materials and products, risk reduction and harmonization by providing that desired single source of both material and design allowable access for its entire enterprise. Increasingly, organizations are realizing the importance of managing materials information, maintaining traceability and making sure valuable IP is secure and shared within the company. If we can ensure that all product material properties are complete and traceable, then reassuring both the anxious airplane passenger and the sleepless compliance director will be an easy job. Save up to 75% on layup labor time with Unitech's Boeing certified Automated Layup Machine LET'S CREATE SOLUTIONS. TOGETHER. www.unitech-aerospace.com Unitech is committed to investing in technology and has developed a proven method to achieve superior quality and realize significant overall cost savings on cleats, clips and brackets. Take the hand out of hand layup and drive out costs with our revolutionary Automated Layup Machine.