JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #148 - November/December 2022 - 22

MANUFACTURlNG industry 4.0
Focus
Preparing plys at
Velocity's recently
launched Digital
Manufacturing Cell
to premature product expiration and shorter
usability times. Th is lack of information leads
to discarded and wasted material either because
it cannot be consumed in the required
manufacturing lead time, or it cannot meet the
traceability criteria required in highly-regulated
industries such as aerospace.
Structural material kit supply makes it possible
to deal with high-value, high-performance
components such as fuselage, wing, engine
nacelle and empennage sections built to high
tolerances in a highly-regulated process. Th e
raw material kits for these are manufactured
in a proprietary clean room environment to
manage their usable life and protect them
from contamination. Due to the pre-impregnated
resin, the raw material rolls are stored at
-18°C in on-site freezers to protect their shelf
life until they are needed for production.
Both frozen and ambient-temperature raw
materials and fi nished parts are tracked in real
time at an individual roll and kit level, assisted
by radio frequency identifi cation technology
(RFID) and digital systems for full ply-level
traceability, meaning the remaining life of
raw materials can be accurately tracked to cut
down on waste and provide greater traceability
to customers.
Using the Velocity process with digital
technology ensures total traceability of the
materials in and out of the freezer, with a full
history and audit of all movements, including
batch numbers of the materials relating back
to the parent roll and supplier backed by
RFID technology. As such, the company's
service ensures that a material is still well
within specifi cation when cut and supplied, in
22
jec composites magazine / N°
turn reducing the risk of waste due to shelf-life
expiration.
Hypernest software reduces
operational waste to well below 1%
At the start of any structural kitt ing programme,
the initial CAD data sent by customers is oft en
reconfi gured by the Hypernest soft ware to
ensure correct formatt ing and guarantee the
detailed design can be processed by the CNC
cutt ing machines. Th is reverse engineering
step is necessary to create the correct soft ware
language across the process and is also fully
traceable and utilises the company's Digital Ply
Inspection platform to audit engineering work
and ensure all shape data is fully compliant
with the original customer data.
Similarly, the Hypernest soft ware provides the
greatest effi ciency on the digital cutt ing tables
by ensuring maximum material utilisation
and minimum material wastage during the
production run. Th is includes much larger and
complex nests of shapes, some well over a kilometre
in length, where the soft ware identifi es
opportunities.
Rolls are only picked from frozen storage
according to the customer demand and agreed
operating principles to preserve their material
shelf life. Once issued to the clean room, the
soft ware further improves operational effi -
ciency by identifying the precise roll size and
required roll change-overs.
Th e digital symbiosis of Velocity's cutt ing
equipment, Hypernest and VRP systems is
paramount to allow real-time data updates
for manufacturing performance and material
utilisation effi ciency, to not only ensure key
148 November - December 2022
Velocity Composites plc is listed
on AIM, the growth market of the
London Stock Exchange. The company
is the leading supplier of advanced
composite material kits to
the aerospace market. Through its
development of proprietary digital
technologies, it offers a bespoke,
fully-managed supply chain and
manufacturing service, targeting
cost efficiencies for a global customer
base. Velocity Composites
has its headquarters in Burnley,
Lancashire, with a second site at
Fareham, Hampshire.
business indictors are on-track, but further give
customers insight into long-term service performance
for the company's agreed contracts.
No limit to technology's impact
Th ere is no limit to where we can take this
technology, backed up by the real-time
data-driven processes that give us and our
customers valuable information upon which
to make decisions. Indeed, as we continue to
develop and refi ne our processes for increasing
effi ciencies on behalf of our customers
and the wider supply chains, we believe other
industries can benefi t from this adaptive,
fl exible technology.
Th e processes and soft ware at Velocity are not
limited to the aerospace sector. Th e automotive,
wind energy and sports & leisure industries
are already looking at possible opportunities.
In the automotive industry, the parts
are generally higher volume and continually
changing due to continuous development, so
the fl exible, kitt ed solution is well suited and
processes themselves are transferable.
Th e way this technology can be adapted and
exploited to revolutionise composite supply
chains across all sectors will ensure that the
impact of Industry 4.0 can continue unhindered.
More
information:
www.velocity-composites.com
http://www.velocity-composites.com
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #148 - November/December 2022

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