Virtual Manufacturing for the Aerospace Industry

Casting

Casting is a vital process in aerospace manufacturing, producing lightweight, high-precision components essential for aircraft performance and reliability. Investment casting offers exceptional surface finishes and dimensional accuracy, making it ideal for intricate parts like turbine blades, while sand casting provides a cost-effective solution for larger components, such as doors and engine houses. Both methods ensure aerospace part manufacturers meet demanding strength-to-weight ratios and performance standards.

To achieve premium quality castings, while securing time-to-market and manufacture at controlled cost, adopting a virtual approach with simulation software that uses advanced physics and finite element technology is a must.

Accurately predict potential manufacturing issues upfront during filling and solidification stages, like misruns, air entrainment, shrinkage and micro porosity, cracks and hot tear results in reducing scrap rates and prevents costly redesigns at late stages.

Virtual modeling of the entire casting process also allows analysis of complex effects like residual stresses and distortions, allowing part manufacturers to deliver their castings within tolerances. Additional valuable insights into microstructure, grain growth orientation, and mechanical properties can be provided, ensuring components meet aerospace durability and safety standards. 

Composites

Composite materials are essential in aerospace manufacturing, offering exceptional strength-to-weight ratios that enhance aircraft performance and fuel efficiency. Made from fibers like carbon, glass and aramid embedded in a resin matrix, composites are significantly lighter than traditional metals, but still maintain structural integrity. This makes them ideal for critical components such as fuselage sections, wings, and engine parts. They provide durability, fatigue resistance, and corrosion protection, contributing to safer, more efficient, and more sustainable aircraft designs.

Composite simulation software allows engineers to simulate and optimize every stage of the manufacturing process, from draping and pre-forming of dry textiles and thermoplastic and thermoset pre-pregs, to resin transfer molding, infusion and curing processes. Virtual modeling of the composite part manufacturing process enables accurate prediction of material behavior and potential defects. Analyzing factors such as fiber orientations, shear angles, ply thickness, curing quality and distortions ensures optimal structural integrity and process efficiency. It also facilitates almost instantaneous feedback loops during the design stage, allows to reduce production cycle times with confidence and results in  minimal material waste. 

Sheet Metal Forming

Sheet metal forming is a key process in aerospace manufacturing, offering the ability to produce high-precision metal components efficiently and at scale. It shapes metal sheets into complex forms with tight tolerances, ensuring the structural integrity and safety of an aircraft. From structural components like ribs and frames to large size fuselage and wing panels, sheet metal formed components provide the strength, durability, and accuracy needed for critical aerospace components.

To address challenges such as springback effects and material thinning, sheet metal forming simulation software is essential, enabling optimization of tool geometries, prediction of material behavior, and refinement of forming strategies. Regardless if you are considering (stainless) steel, aluminium or titanium materials, work with small or large components, use advanced temperature and strain rate dependend materials, virtual modeling of stretch forming, superplastic forming, hydroforming, rubber pad or membrane forming and many more processes allows to eliminate manufacturing defects before any physical tool is manufactured, ensuring delivery of parts within tolerances and with optimal part quality while minimizing cycle times and waste.