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Stelia North America selects Plataine's IIoT solution

09 Apr '20

3 min read

Pic: Stelia North America

Stelia North America, a manufacturer of advanced composite structures for commercial, space and defence applications, has selected Plataine’s IIoT solution to digitise and streamline its manufacturing processes. Stelia North America is a subsidiary of Stelia Aerospace, a leader in aerostructures, pilot seats, and business & first class passenger seats.

Plataine’s technology will deliver a range of benefits including quality improvement, increased throughput, material savings, and full visibility into Stelia’s manufacturing process.

The company decided to adopt a digital manufacturing software solution as part of a business-wide internal manufacturing modernisation programme designed to ensure Stelia North America maintained its industry-leading proficiency in manufacturing aerospace composite structures and integrate the multiple sources of data into an integrated system. Plataine was selected due to its strong track record at using IIoT technology to help aerospace composite parts manufacturers optimise their operations, according to a press release by Stelia.

Plataine’s Material Shelf Life Management application automatically tracks out-of-freezer time for sensitive material such as composite pre-pregs and resins throughout production, and leverages AI to ensure higher quality and reduce re-work and waste. Digital records of the entire production process from raw material to end product are automatically stored, forming a digital thread for full manufacturing traceability. Meanwhile, this extensive automation process reduces human error and frees up skilled staff from repetitive tasks such as manual paperwork and calculations. It also optimises material consumption and reduces waste related to shelf life.

A network of strategically placed RFID gates eliminates potential for human error when monitoring and tracking time-sensitive composite materials’ exposure as well as location of all production and work-in-progress assets. This ensures optimal material selection for jobs and enables AI-based digital assistants to offer predictive alerts, actionable insights and real-time recommendations to staff, to further optimise production and minimise waste. Plataine’s application enables complete visibility and traceability through the entire manufacturing process, guarantying Stelia North America advanced quality control capabilities where each finished product can be traced back to its historical raw material batch, including information about the tools and machines that were used to produce that part.

“Our internal digital transformation programme is a top to bottom look at automating and improving our composites manufacturing process. The aim is to guarantee Stelia North America’s position as an industry leader at composites structures manufacturing for the aerospace and defence markets. We decided to work with Plataine thanks to their strong proven record at using IIoT to optimise aerospace composite manufacturing operations,” Claude Baril, managing director, Stelia North America said.

“Manufacturing composite structures for aerospace is highly demanding with complex processes and strict quality requirements. Stelia North America has a global reputation for cutting-edge manufacturing capabilities, and we are proud to support their goals to increase production volumes and lower costs,” Avner Ben-Bassat, president and CEO of Plataine said.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (GK)