The partners in a £2.5 million ($4.3 million) UK project to create an integrated software system for simultaneous design, manufacturing and operations modelling gathered last week for a start-up meeting.
The Precision Concept Design Model of Manufacture for Competitive Advantage (PreMade) project aims to link manufacturing, design and operations simulations.
The project could give airframe manufacturers a tool to immediately calculate the operational costs and manufacturing needs of any particular aircraft design or modification of an existing product.
Funded with £1.1 million from the UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and £1.4 million from its industrial partners, it will last for three years, with further industrial dissemination of the results for another year.
“We got the DTI offer last July. We are also applying for Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council funding,” says Queen’s University Belfast’s PreMade principal investigator Richard Curran.
The university’s school of aeronautical engineering has a centre of excellence for integrated aircraft technology and is a “centre of competence” for design software developer Dassault Systèmes, which is a PreMade partner.
The prime industrial partner on the project is Bombardier in Belfast.
ROB COPPINGER/BELFAST
Source: Flight International