September 18th 2019, The Hague – The National Composites Centre (NCC), UK and Airborne UK are working together to design a system to collect and store data from an Automated Fibre Placement (AFP) machine.
Collaborative project
Airborne UK and the NCC are defining use cases by considering source and type
of data from sensors. The challenge is to develop a data warehouse capable of
providing insights through analytics to allow future optimisation. These first
steps are the basis to connect automation with digitalisation and enable
Industry 4.0 capability. The project has already started and is planned to be
complete by November 2019.
The AFP machine at the NCC was acquired as part of the iCap program. iCAP is a
£ 36.7 million investment in 10 digital manufacturing technologies tailor-made
to the NCC’s specifications, in order to speed the development of all forms of
composite manufacturing.
Shared vision
Joe Summers, Managing Director at
Airborne UK: “The NCC and Airborne share a vision to make
composites easier to use and more affordable. We are delighted to be working on
this program to allow new insights into AFP processing.”
Marc Funnell, Head of Digital at the NCC, said: “Being able to network equipment and effectively store manufacturing process data is an important step forward for the composites industry to be smart and connected. As a world-leading composite research facility the NCC acts a ‘demonstrator’ for industry. This partnership with Airborne will enable the NCC to build upon its work in applying modelling and data science techniques to derive more comprehensive understanding of composite processes, ultimately demonstrating the potential of digitally enabled manufacturing to produce parts more efficiently whilst maintaining the highest level of quality.”
About NCC:
The National Composites Centre (NCC) is one of seven centres that form the High Value Manufacturing Catapult and focuses on accelerating the adoption of high-value, sustainable engineering solutions in composites, in order to stimulate growth, and enhance capability for the benefit of the UK.
The NCC has over 350 composite specialists based at its Bristol facility and offers open-access to cutting-edge digital manufacturing technology for the design, and development of new composite products pulling through technology from the lab to large-scale production. Visit www.nccuk.com