Alenia Aeronautica Selects VISTAGY’s FiberSIM® Software for Composites Design on Boeing 787 Dreamliner Program
Italian aircraft manufacturer streamlines composites design and manufacturing process with FiberSIM to efficiently build complex aircraft parts
WALTHAM, Mass., (USA), June 25, 2007 — VISTAGY, Inc., a leading global provider of specialized engineering software, today announced that Alenia Aeronautica, the largest Italian aerospace manufacturer, is utilizing VISTAGY’s FiberSIM® software as its specialized composites design tool on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner program. The company is streamlining its entire product development process using FiberSIM to more quickly and efficiently manufacture large, complex composite aircraft parts.
Alenia Aeronautica, a Finmeccanica company (FNC IM; SIFI.MI), has more than ninety years of experience in the aerospace sector. The company operates worldwide in the development of commercial and military aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and aerostructures, and is also active in the overhaul, maintenance and modification of military and civil aircraft.
Alenia engineers have utilized FiberSIM’s Advanced Composite Engineering Environment™ (ACEE) to more efficiently and flexibly define composite parts within existing CAD systems while automating many of the repetitive design, simulation and manufacturing tasks unique to working with composites. As a result, the company expects to shorten design cycle times and mitigate the potential for manufacturing errors while increasing its focus on design innovation, part performance and quality to meet all critical part specifications.
Engineers plan to leverage all FiberSIM ACEE features for their aircraft projects, including structural-based design tools for specifying laminate requirements, tools for generating zone transitions, ply boundaries, plybooks and variable offset surfaces, and smart darting and splicing capabilities—all critical aspects of the design and manufacturing processes for composite aircraft part production.
“Alenia Aeronautica consistently meets its customers’ demands for reducing product development cycle times, and with VISTAGY’s FiberSIM, we expect to realize our engineering goals more quickly and efficiently than ever before,” said Fabrizio Damiano, manufacturing engineer at Alenia Aeronautica. “By sharing critical design information across the engineering chain, and automating our process from design and modeling through production, Alenia engineers can spend more time creating innovative products while minimizing material waste and trial and error. We’re pleased to partner with VISTAGY and recognize the purchase of FiberSIM as a strategic and competitive advantage for our organization.”
“In the increasingly competitive aerospace industry, manufacturers must achieve ‘time-to-part’ quicker than their competitors and ensure absolute quality and compliance with product specifications. FiberSIM takes the guesswork out of meeting these goals,” said Alex Edwards, general manager, Europe at VISTAGY, Inc. “Leading manufacturers like Alenia Aeronautica are using FiberSIM as their specialized design environment for composite engineering to significantly improve their CAD-based product development process while reducing the inherent risks in designing innovative new products.”
About Alenia Aeronautica
Alenia Aeronautica, a Finmeccanica Company, is the largest Italian aeronautic player, which operates worldwide in the commercial and military aviation, unmanned aerial vehicles and aerostructures industries. Alenia Aeronautica also coordinates the activities of Alenia Aermacchi and Alenia Aeronavali—wholly owned companies—respectively active in the design and manufacturing of military trainer aircraft and in the overhaul, maintenance and modification of military and civil aircraft. With its joint venture ATR, Alenia Aeronautica is the world leader in the regional turboprop market. Over 2006 Alenia Aeronautica reported revenues of 1,908 millions Euro, backlog for 7,538 millions Euro and orders for 2,634. The total workforce is 12,135.
About VISTAGY, Inc.
VISTAGY, Inc. develops engineering software that provides specialized functionality to significantly improve the value of commercial 3D CAD systems. VISTAGY’s specialized engineering environments enable engineers to capture and communicate complete virtual product definitions within CAD, thereby increasing productivity, improving the communication of product information throughout the product lifecycle, and allowing better-informed decision-making early in design. VISTAGY software is used throughout the world in the aerospace, automotive, marine, medical, wind energy, sporting goods, and transportation interiors industries. The company also offers training and consulting services. For more information, contact VISTAGY in Waltham, Massachusetts, USA, at +1.781.250.6868 or visit www.vistagy.com.
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