Design Automation: Aerospace Structures and Tooling

The Aerostructures Corporation has realized significant reductions in the number of work hours required to create surfaced, 3D wireframe CAD models of aerospace structures and tooling through the use of knowledge based engineering (KBE) and generative design models. Generative models are electronic representations of the design process that contain all of the information needed to design, analyze, and manufacture a product in a single integrated solution. This paper documents the development and use of generative models on: composite aircraft ribs, bond tooling for composites, and age forming tools. Reductions in the number of design work hours, allow time for optimizations, with the result being more efficient, manufacturable designs.