WP1 R&D Mobility Fund | ICEAF Conference

Last summer, BrightSky had the opportunity of attending the 7th ICEAF conference, an international biannual forum organised by the European Aeronautics Science Network (EASN) and the Federation of European Materials Society (FEMS). The ICEAF conference focuses on scientific and technological achievements relevant to the theme of engineering against failure, including applications in the aviation and aerospace sectors.

Within the  Smart MRO work package (WP1), a group of TNO, AUAS, KLM E&M, JetSupport, and S&T is working on the development of a novel inspection method to facilitate fast and contactless, in-service, ultrasonic non-destructive testing (NDT) of airframe structures and components. The ICEAF conference provided the BrightSky development team with an excellent opportunity to present ongoing research on the proposed methodology.

During the Smart and Sustainable Aerospace Engineering & Maintenance session, Konstantinos Stamoulis presented current research results, and future project plans on thickness measurements and damage detection in airframe components using the non-contact ultrasonic inspection system were discussed. The presentation was well-received, and the follow-up submitted conference paper has been accepted for publication in the Conference Proceedings Issue of the Journal of Physics: Conference Series.

Although the preliminary testing results show good potential for the proposed alternative NDT system, a lot of further developments and optimisations have also been generated. In future activities, these remain to be addressed to advance the NDT system to an efficient and approved NDT inspection tool.

System, cobot-based platform

Thickness measurements ad damage detection in aircraft wing flap