Global Fastener News

PRODUCT NEWS
SyncroFIT 2010 Reduces Airframe Assembly Design Time by as Much as 70%

Latest version of VISTAGY software efficiently defines and manages fasteners, joints and interfaces between parts within complex airframe assemblies
 

WALTHAM, Mass., (USA), October 5, 2010 — VISTAGY, Inc., a leading provider of industry-specific engineering software and services, today announced the release of SyncroFIT® 2010, which improves the efficiency and accuracy of airframe assembly development by enabling commercial 3D CAD users to fully define and manage fasteners, joints and interfaces between parts within complex assemblies. The latest version of SyncroFIT includes new customer-driven enhancements in four primary areas: Airframe Assembly Management; CAD Integration; Design Validation, and User Experience. The new capabilities shorten and simplify the assembly design effort from the earliest stages of the joint definition phase through detailed design by as much as 70 percent compared to manual methods. Recent purchases of the software by Bombardier Aerospace and GKN Aerospace provide evidence of the software’s ability to streamline the airframe development process.

Defining holes and fasteners for today’s complex airframes is no small task, but it is crucial to keeping an aircraft program on schedule. Taking an integrated approach to airframe design and assembly is critical to making well-informed design decisions so the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of fasteners in a single aircraft—and their location, type, fastening requirements, material and cost—can be effectively managed and communicated throughout the supply chain. SyncroFIT is the only production-proven, CAD-integrated, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solution for managing the complexities of airframe interfaces with a particular emphasis on fastened structures. SyncroFIT has broad capabilities to efficiently author, validate, and communicate both the type design definition and the manufacturing assembly states of the airframe. 

As a key component of the VISTAGY AeroSuite™, which also includes FiberSIM® for designing and manufacturing innovative, durable and lightweight composite structures, the Quality Planning Environment™ for developing plans to assess aerostructure quality, and VISTAGY professional services, SyncroFIT is helping airframe manufacturers meet demanding schedule and cost targets while improving the overall quality of the final product. By transforming the 3D CAD system into an efficient airframe development system, SyncroFIT enables engineers to make better-informed decisions throughout the development process and quickly adapt to the inevitable changes that occur.

The 2010 version of SyncroFIT delivers key new functionality for increasing productivity, eliminating error-induced engineering change orders and improving communication between internal departments and throughout the supply chain, including:

Earlier and Broader Management of Airframe Assemblies 
SyncroFIT 2010 promotes earlier and more accurate assembly definition with new Fastener Pattern Development capability, which quickly transfers analysis requirements for joint fastening to the 3D CAD design based on the user’s input requirements and design rules. Enabling rapid design trade-offs to optimize designs for fastener usage provides instantaneous and accurate bill of materials (BOM) reporting, which is critical to procurement having visibility into the modifications that naturally take place as the design evolves. In addition, the new software extends the capability and benefits of managing interfaces, fastening requirements, and specialized hardware beyond structures into the aircraft systems and interiors groups to develop standardized processes across disciplines. And it supports design for serviceability initiatives to reduce maintenance costs by standardizing fasteners on removable service panels to simplify repair and replacement procedures.

Deeper Integration Into the 3D Computer-Aided-Design Process 
SyncroFIT 2010 reduces bottlenecks between internal departments and the supply chain with a standardized master model approach and common interface, which enforces consistent authoring and streamlines subsequent editing and navigation of the data. SyncroFIT 2010 establishes an industry-standard 3D Model Based Representation of detail part and assembly data to help meet the demands of the aerospace industry’s transition from a 2D drawing-based process to a 3D model-centric environment.

Improved Process for Validating Designs 
The new software enhances the design validation process to expedite review by design leads and checkers for design work completed in-house, by outside suppliers, or by design partners. This reduces design review time for assembly-specific rules by as much as 95 percent while also significantly cutting engineering change orders (ECOs) and manufacturing rework.

Better User Experience 
SyncroFIT 2010 provides an improved user experience that features a completely overhauled user interface tailored to specific use cases, which puts key functionality at the engineers’ fingertips to simplify usage. The software is also now available with an internationalized user interface to meet the demands of the increasingly global aerospace market.

“Defining holes and fasteners is a critical issue for developing composite aircraft because the variation in skin thickness drives the need for a wide array of fasteners and adds complexity to the design,” said Justin Elliott, GKN Aerospace’s chief engineer on the CSeries aircraft winglet program. “SyncroFIT unravels this complexity by enabling us to easily author and capture complete digital representations of airframe assemblies and share critical design and manufacturing detail more efficiently. VISTAGY’s software and services will enable us to take an integrated approach to design and airframe assembly that will help us meet our goals.”

For more information about the value that SyncroFIT 2010 brings to engineering organizations, please register to attend a live Webcast entitled, Avoid Program Delays: Streamline Airframe Fastening and Assembly with SyncroFIT® 2010, which will take place on Thursday, October 7th at 9:00 EDT / 13:00 GMT/UTC and again at 14:00 EDT/ 11:00 PDT.

SyncroFIT 2010 is currently shipping.

About VISTAGY, Inc.

VISTAGY, Inc. is a leading global provider of industry-specific engineering software and services that create rich product descriptions for better-informed decision making early in the design cycle. The company enhances commercial 3D CAD platforms by applying specialized process knowledge and domain expertise to create solutions that solve some of the world’s most complex engineering problems. As a result, customers significantly increase their reuse of engineering data and ultimately reduce cost, improve quality, and cut time to market. VISTAGY is a strategic partner to hundreds of leading manufacturers in the aerospace, automotive, and wind energy industries, including Bombardier Aerospace, General Motors, and Sinomatech Wind Power Blade Co. The company is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, USA, www.vistagy.com.