Mary-Louise Hoffman
ATK has been awarded a contract to help the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining beta test an aircraft structures inspection system for the U.S. Air Force, CompositesWorld reported Monday.
The online magazine reports ATK’s aerospace group and NCDMM will collaborate under phase two of the Air Force Research Laboratory‘s on-tool composites inspection technology development project.
NCDMM has worked with Ingersoll Machine Tools Inc. to build technology for the Air Force to detect flaws in aircraft composite materials that are manufactured using the automated fiber placement method, according to the article.
Jim Fisher, NCDMM director of operations, said the technology will be installed at an ATK facility for a three-month testing activity.
CompositesWorld reports the system is designed with an electronic database to help aircraft inspectors identify and address composite material defects during the fabrication process.
Joy de Lisser, general manager of ATK’s aerospace structures division, says the contract will let the company develop technology in fiber placement machines through automated inspection.
The AFRL’s office at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio runs the project under the Defense-Wide Manufacturing Science and Technology program.
