AUTOMOTIVE

Airbus, which is a long time user of modern composites to reduce weight, has been at the forefront of developing simulation to solve the problems of high tooling costs and waste and long development lead times when working with these materials. In recent years, ESI and Airbus have taken the RTM process – used for more than a decade by major Airbus shareholder EADS – and adapted it for the new challenge. PAM-RTM is the result, checking mould designs and process parameters to ensure that parts are injected right first time. Now, PAM-RTM for Catia V5 CAD/CAM provides seamless integration with Catia simulation algorithms on the native geometry, dramatically reducing the simulation cycle time and allowing direct associativity between mould design and simulation results. It also allows the user to perform injection analysis directly on the CAD model, which ensures consistent geometric data flow during iterative continuous improvement, resulting in further significant time and cost savings. It solves the problem of using external simulation environments, which force data export – thus ensuring no loss of information due to geometry conversion and transfer, and no need for dynamic communication between design and simulation results. “The PAM-RTM for PLM version we developed for Airbus is the starting point of ESI Group’s collaboration with Airbus to bring virtual manufacturing within PLM,” says Vincent Chaillou, COO at ESI Group. “Our objective is to support Airbus’ current increased use of composite materials through the delivery of physics-based simulation tools, available within the Airbus PLM working environment.” “With this application, Airbus is introducing the numerical simulation of manufacturing liquid composite moulding processes,” adds Gilles Debril, Airbus concurrent engineering project manager for composites. “It is seen as a major breakthrough that will help us to remain at the cutting edge of the technology in the composite material field.”