Octans Aircraft is using a swathe of Siemens software for the product development and testing process
Having invested $20 million to modernise its plant a few hours outside São Paulo, Octans Aircraft, a Brazilian manufacturer of small aircraft is getting a further lift from the adoption of solutions from Siemens Digital Industries Software.
The company is producing its first aircraft model, the 300A with capacity for five seats, which will undergo the certification process – and Octans plans to achieve positive results by reducing the time and cost of the processes through the implementation of its new software.
It’s fair to say the company has invested fully in Siemens’ product catalogue – based fully on the objective of facilitating the control and traceability processes of the project.
In addition to Teamcenter, Octans Aircraft has also implemented NX; the Simcenter portfolio including Femap, Simcenter, and Testlab Structures Testing software.
“Certified products require strict configuration and traceability control, and Siemens‘ technology is crucial for these controls to be effective throughout the product lifecycle, helping enable customers and Octans more security, reliability and availability of their products,” said Octans Aircraft business manager Allan Peluzzi.
“Through agile development methodologies and using simultaneous engineering, in addition to the digital twin, we can reduce design and manufacturing time with simulations and studies still in the development phase.”
As a result, Octans Aircraft suggests that it has seen a 40 per cent reduction in time in the new product development cycle and ‘100 per cent integration and transparency between the Development and Process teams through the application of Simultaneous Engineering’, which was apparently not possible in the previous method of work, due to ‘network limitations and permissions’.
Octans also talked up its ability to maintain absolute control of versions and revisions, improvement in the interactions between CAD and Simulation teams; the construction of a digital twin capable of fully integrating system, structural, process and manufacturing developments, reducing assembly time, product improvements, and overhauls by nearly 45 per cent.
“In 2017, with the evolution of the 300A project to the detailing phase, the company needed tools to support the evolution, in addition to the development and validation of complex products, version management, revisions and also to link the product and documentation that supports your certification. We saw in Teamcenter the ideal platform to support the process of development and also certification of the products,” says Octans engineering manager Leonardo de Pádua Andrade Filho.
“With this system we have been able to go through the entire product development and manufacturing cycle, with greater control of versions, in line with established market practices widely used by other aviation players, improving engineering interactions in the development phase, streamlining our project releases and enabling traceability at each stage of the process.”
The new setup stays true to the fast-paced development that founded the company in 2013, when Milton Roberto Pereira, a great aviation enthusiast and entreprenuer from the financial market, acquired control of Inpaer, an experimental aircraft manufacturer, to give a new direction to the business.
The new aircraft begins to take shape
