Year: 2016

As known to many of us, 3D printing technology is widely used by many industries and will continue doing for the commercial enhancement. Airbus Group which is the largest aviation firm in Europe declares its collaboration with Dassault Systems. The association, Dassault Systems is viewed as a dominant in 3D design software and the 3DEXPERIENCE will soon shift to the Airbus additive manufacturing programs. Now, the 3D design software will enable Airbus to model the part of aircraft for its commercial use digitally.

The company Airbus Group, which is a solid combination of Airbus, Airbus Defense, Space and Airbus Helicopters, incorporates 3DEXPERIENCE to its division of additive manufacturing, finally after a consistent success of two-year production process. Based on the slated information, the 3D platform functions by integrating design, simulation, and production to a product lifecycle management system (PLM) solution. The platform will come into existence by the Airbus Group for making a collaborative design, prototyping, simulate application for the additive manufacturing process, among the parts of test flights and within the production use on commercial aircraft.

However, the only problem linked to additive manufacturing is the low cost which gives a scope of errors when compared with traditional manufacturing processes. Hence, Airbus floats a solution “Co-Design to Target” for optimization of conceptual design by validation at each phase including designing of parts, production, and testing during the process. The initiative taken for optimization at each stage will ultimately contribute to the reduction of cost of manufacturing and unnecessary waste.

Moreover, additive manufacturing remains as the world best aerospace engineering firm for both the prototypes as well as finished products and a robust software solution continuing as high demand. Thus, Dassault Systems is duly interest to lend their manufacturing solution to the best among the aerospace industry. In addition to it, the idea of additive manufacture of metal parts gets further credibility when it declares the Airbus Subsidiary. Along with the 3DEXPERIENCE platform as its benchmark, they provide a variety of platforms to its industrial partners.

Robert Nardini as the Senior Vice President of Engineering Airframe at Airbus explains that “There are some projects which are increasing the use of additive manufacturing for production of prototypes as well as production components and delivering light and affordable parts that can meet the performance standards. Now, there will be a similar analysis to view the technology from every aspect if the reader is a manufacturer. Closing down the statement for Additive manufacturing, it holds a fast and energy efficient way to manufacture products without causing much wastage of material.

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Six Sigma is a methodology that follows data-driven approach for eliminating faults in a process related to any stage of a project from manufacturing to customer service. It is a quality program aimed at minimizing costs and improving the user experience.

Statistically, a process can achieve Six Sigma if it produces less than 3.4 defects for every million opportunities. Anything that does not come in customer specifications can be called as Six Sigma defect. A Six Sigma opportunity is the total amount of chances where a defect can be found. The Six Sigma procedure is aimed at implementing a measurement-based strategy whose core focuses are process improvement and reduction in variation by applying Six Sigma improvement projects.

There are two sub-methodologies of Six Sigma called DMAIC (Design, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control) and DMADV (Design, Measure, Analyze, Design, Verify). The DMAIC is about the improvement of current processes that fall below specification. The DMADV process is about developing new products and processes that cater to the Six Sigma quality levels. This improvement system can also be used when an existing process needs to go beyond incremental improvement. Six Sigma plays an important role in various engineering positions nowadays, some of them are:

Design Engineers:

Design engineers can apply this methodology to get better results in many areas like understanding customer’s requirements, getting the right tech specifications and drawings and extracting knowledge about manufacturing processes.

Process Engineers:

Six Sigma can help process engineers in data mining, enabling them to track every aspect of the process efficiently. It helps them reach maximum throughput levels at the very first time.

Manufacturing Engineers:

It helps manufacturing engineers model the potential shifts in configuration and testing the performance and potential infrastructure costs associated. It is extremely helpful in end-of-the-line testing.

System Engineers:

System engineers have to understand each and every detail associated with a manufacturing process intricately. Six Sigma will help them focus on areas that add value for the customers like cost, quality improvement, and other aspects that rely on data and statistics.

The average salary of a Black Belt Engineer of Six Sigma in the United States is $83,704 per year. The Six Sigma Academy claims that companies save approximately $23,000 per project because of black belts and can complete four to six projects in a year. The far-reaching benefits that six sigma produces have been recognized by thousands of companies across the world.

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The technology boom was shown up in the Star Trek which was imagined to take place after a hundred years from that time. But, something which is envisioned already would not take much time to get into the reality and hence, the gadgets came into our routine a bit sooner. Here, is the listing of technology examples that are identical to the ones showed in Star Trek:

Mobile Phones
At that time wired phones attached to the wall were considered a great thing to experience but flip devices was stylish than ever. The flip style mobile phones that we used reflects the incarnation of Star Trek communicators. Well, the brightest devices today (cell phones) are a look alike of communicator that the crew members used to talk to distanced crew members. What our favorite crew members did onscreen is based on the easy to do communication today. Even if there is a smarter shift from Flip devices to smarter and sleek mobile phones, the communication must go on.

 

Tablets

It would be wrong to mention the iPads and Tablets as the recent invention as we have already seen Picard and Riker carry those handheld computers. Those Handheld devices are undoubtedly inspired technique to what we pronounce as Tablets and iPads today but much ahead to what we have envisioned in Star Trek. The Flat smart screen of Tablets that was barely an imagination in 1960 can carry thousands of apps within it and work efficiently today.

 

 

Bluetooth Earpieces

From the listings of Star Trek, Nyota Uhura, the communication officer had a silver piece of thing always attached to her ear. The device allowed her to get all the information from various frequencies. If you come across the same hands-free handset today then would pronounce it as Bluetooth Earpiece but for them, it was merely In-ear comms.

 

 

 

Tricorders

The Medical tricorders were of use to medical inspection team or surgeon to explore the internal situation of a crew member. From detecting of disease till checking of oxygen levels, the complete examination of the insights was carried out without going through a medical procedure. The device could easily locate the downfalls and injuries with its help at that time. We are well acquainted with a device named MRI machine that is performing the same function.

 

 

Smart Watches

Smart watches came into lifestyle back then at the time of Star Trek. A modern day reality of Apple smartwatch gives away the courtesy to Star Trek: A Motion Picture that came out in the 60s. Smartwatch in the movies was one of the bright spots that appeared on the wrist of crew members as a part of their uniform. So, now we know that Apple has taken an inspirational jump from the motion pictures.

Video Calls

An incoming call with a video facility was dreamed for years and make some real life presence through Star Trek. The service allowed Captains to see other crew members on the starship or another planet through the means of calling. Well, the technology has made a step since the movie and went into a constant progress till such novelty turns into a routine life part. Skype and Facetime are commonly known and needs no introduction. Today, with the help of video calling you can stay connected with family friends and relatives, as an excellent example of technology advancement.

Concluding to the technology mentioned above, Star Trek has showcased a right amount of futuristic technologies back in the 1960s which is the subject matter of appreciation and inspiration.