JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #83 - August/September 2013 - 69

tion approaches are inefficient for the
new generation of composite parts.
The integration of non-destructive
evaluation (NDE) into the manufacturing process is a potential solution to
this problem. Although the ultrasonic
inspection of complex parts using
computer-aided-design (CAD) drawings and teach-and-learn methods is
frequently used in automated NDT of
aerospace components, it is uncommon for these systems to be required
to rapidly inspect a large number of
part types with various geometries. An
added difficulty frequently encountered with composites is that actual
part geometries differ slightly from
CAD drawings.
In today’s competitive environment,
NDT must become part of the design
and manufacturing process to meet
requirements for throughput and efficiency. The time required to go from
CAD drawings (which for aerospace
purposes are often in the form of CATIA drawings) to inspection must be
reduced. Importation of CAD drawings
into NDT systems or teach-and-learn
processes is not sufficient to deal with
the increased use of CAD data with
greater geometric part complexities. In
the same way that manufacturing was
integrated with CAD/CAM systems
some years ago, the next generation of
inspection systems must be fully integrated into the manufacturing process
to meet current production challenges.

we are commonly
still encoding our
systems in isolation
without interaction
with other departments.
The system
described in this
paper is a CAD/
CANDT system
in which design
processes and nondestructive testing
are embedded.
Making the analogy
to CAM systems,
NDT is fully inteFig. 1: Process schematic
grated and human
intervention is not required before or
during the inspection. Implementation
of a CAD/CANDT system offers a
number of benefits including a reduction in the time required to design scan
plans for new parts in addition to a
reduced cycle time. Other integration
objectives are sharing information,
avoiding duplication of work, reducing
wasted effort, eliminating non-value
activities, and standardizing software
suites, which as a consequence frees
up valuable NDT resources to perform
NDT evaluations.
The processes required to perform an
inspection are schematically shown in

Figure 1. These processes are no different than what is done for a part to be
machined.
The first step is to import a CAD/CATIA drawing into the path-generating
software (Mastercam) to create a tool
path or, from an NDT perspective, a
scan plan. The scan plan is converted
into CNC codes to inspect the part.
Conversion is done using a postprocessor that translates tool-path data
from Mastercam into CNC codes that a
controller such as the Siemens Sinumerik can interpret (ISO-programming
codes or G codes).
These codes are what the operator sees
when the machine is inspecting. ISO

Implementation of processes
Fully-integrated computer-aided design and manufacturing systems are referred to as CAD/CAM. CAD involves
creating computer models defined by
geometrical parameters. Computeraided manufacturing (CAM) uses
geometrical-design data to control automated machinery. CAM systems are
associated with computer numerical
control (CNC). Modern CAD/CAM
systems differ from older forms of numerical control (NC) in that geometrical data no longer has to be encoded
mechanically. The analogy to current
automated NDT systems is evident;

Fig. 2: CAD/CANDT System

No83 August - September 2013

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JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #83 - August/September 2013

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