Quickstep recently signed a $700 million Memorandum of Understanding with Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman to build key components for the Joint Strike Fighter multi-role military aircraft.
Quickstep is using VISTAGY's FiberSIM composites software to manufacture the largest and most complex parts it has produced to date, including lower side skins, maintenance access panels, the F2 fuel tank cover, and the lower skin and in-board weapons bay doors. The software will be used to simulate material draping, define flat patterns, and generate data to drive its laser projection system.
"Working with composites is extremely time-consuming and tedious," says Michael Kaeferboeck, manager of production engineering for Quickstep. "By adopting FiberSIM, we anticipate being able to automate non-value added tasks to achieve significant productivity gains, improve overall part quality and repeatability, and increase our throughput."
Quickstep Holdings Ltd (ASX: QHL) is an Australian-based company specialising in the production of aerospace-grade composite components using both conventional autoclave-based manufacturing and out-of-autoclave production technologies such as its proprietary Quickstep Process.
VISTAGY Inc, headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, USA, provides industry-specific engineering software and services.
