Issaudun, France — In a small manufacturing unit in an commercial property at the outskirts of a rural central French the city identified for showing in Balzac’s novel and for making business aircraft seats, a quiet technical revolution is happening at their producer.
Safran Seats France is the successor to the corporate previously referred to as Zodiac Aerospace and prior to that as Sicma Aero Seat, and its historical past is one in every of consolidation into ever greater conglomerates. As a part of Safran, a part of the French CAC 40 Index, the seating trade – at the side of earlier Zodiac acquisitions in america and UK – is within the strategy of modernizing and modernizing what has traditionally been extra similar to customized or cottage trade on a big scale and manufacturing, Particularly in the case of top rate seats which are low in quantity, top in complexity, and top in worth.
Throughout a seek advice from to the Issoudun manufacturing unit in Safran Seats, Runway Lady Community spotted so much and mentioned extra with various executives, and a number of the maximum placing components was once the way in which Safran deploys Business 4.0 – a unfastened choice of interconnected, clever and automatic. Applied sciences together with digital or augmented truth, synthetic intelligence and robotics – advanced in different spaces of its trade to airplane seats.
One instance is using digital truth (VR) and augmented truth (AR) for seat wiring, which is especially complicated in trade and top notch cabins.
RGN spotted when a technician used an AR device to gather a wiring field to be put in underneath a trade elegance seat, appearing each the present state and the state of the objective. In many ways, it seemed like an ultra-modern AR model of the Lego instruction guide: new items to be added to the meeting are marked in opposition to the prevailing construction already assembled, handiest right here it is accomplished reside, in three-D, and the device exams if it is carried out. carry out it as it should be.
“The picture research device is sensible sufficient to stumble on if the wiring has been carried out poorly,” Benoit Martin Laprade, commercial director of Safran Seats France, advised RGN. “The operator won’t be able to near its procedure if the paintings is completed incorrectly.”
At this level, he explains, “it is going to ask that the cable be correctly reconnected till the article is right kind. Best then will the device test that the operation is right kind.”
Prior to now, this required the time and experience of a 2nd technician to validate and validate the method, which means the time financial savings from automating a big a part of this procedure is important. Procedure and era come from somewhere else within the Safran vary, with Martin-Laprade relating to touchdown tools, airplane engines and helicopter engines.
Those new applied sciences are a part of the Center of attention 4.0 mission, which can be funded in 2021 by means of BPI [the French public investment bank] France. The primary makes use of of those methods began in 2021. To this point, we have now simply finished the pilot segment on one in every of our workbenches and plan to roll it out to different workbenches,” says Martin LaPrade.
Front to Isodoun Safran Automotive Manufacturing unit. Picture: John Walton
Digital truth may be coming.
We’re lately operating at the digital line for one in every of our new merchandise, which is Economic system seat Z200explains David Ballero, Undertaking Head of Production at Safran Seats France. “Digital truth lets in us to test the overlap between the product and the meeting line, [and] Get right of entry to to equipment throughout meeting.
Long term choices for making use of the era come with seat covers, coatings, surfaces, and extra. In the meantime, different implementations of VR will permit many company websites to proportion no longer handiest data however revel in and operations — internally, but additionally with upstream shoppers equivalent to carriers, carriers, and MROs. [maintenance, repair and overhaul] stores, and with inner and exterior finish providers.
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The featured symbol is attributed to Safran.