Software streamlines digital engineering for aircraft manufacture

NLign Analytics (Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.) has released its NLign Product Suite 7.0, including NCheck software for digital engineering aircraft manufacturing and sustainment operations. NCheck connects frontline depot, field and shop floor aircraft inspection personnel with a central database, reportedly ensuring production quality, improving production rates and decreasing costs.

Product Suite 7.0 has been designed to complete the aircraft lifecycle digital thread by streamlining inspection data capture, communication and analysis, enabling large amounts of diverse design, manufacturing and operational data to be leveraged to improve aircraft availability, quality and production rates.

In addition to NCheck, Product Suite 7.0 software modules also include NThread and NLign. Aircraft inspection, rework and repair data is often contained in paper documents, spreadsheets or disconnected electronic files. NThread links as-manufactured data with as-maintained data, providing a complete digital thread from design through the sustainment phase of a product’s lifecycle. Organizations working toward Model Based Enterprise (MBE) practices are adopting the software as a core technology that supplies the central fiber of the digital thread.

NLign provides an interactive 3D environment to analyze both manufacturing and maintenance data. This is said to enable the user to quickly detect and quantify issues like recurring cracks, fatigue, corrosion or increasing wear, and then aids in root cause analysis efforts to identify the problem’s source. Additionally, NLign allows quick access to information relevant to a specific troublesome location on a structure, such as previous repairs and analysis.