Critical Materials

Emerging from the requirement for a deployable Structural Health Monitoring system, capable of integration with equipment already in field operation as well as new designs with advanced materials and built-in sensors.

Designed on top of Critical Materials' Virtual Structural analysis Systems (VS2)TM Core Technology, PRODDIA® looks beyond the traditional SHM solutions featuring:

• a user friendly Graphical User Interface,
• an innovative condition assessment technology - patent pending - allowing accurate damage diagnostics and prognostics,
• a low-density sensor network and
• an integrated management solution.

PRODDIA® supports effective decision-making actions for inspection and maintenance operations and mission planning, based on the real component condition.

The aeronautics and defence industry inspection and maintenance regulations demand operators to frequently ground their aircrafts. Regular maintenance is needed in order to maintain the aircraft structure, systems and components in an airworthy condition. These regular activities occur without factoring in any knowledge on the components conditions - only design time constraints are used. So, it is quite common to replace parts with no fault found.

So far the approach has been a combination of intensive (and expensive) inspection plans and/or monitoring systems based out intensive use of sensors. The later significantly increases aircraft complexity and costs.

The traditional approach has been based out of visual inspection and/or nondestructive inspection (NDI), with:

• High impact of maintenance time on the operational cycle
• Significant expenditure on unnecessary interventions
• Reduced availability and flexibility

PRODDIA® presents a solution to these problems by making SHM systems an operational reality. PRODDIA® provides the designer and the maintenance team with a wealth of information on the physical condition of the structural components. It does so within operational timeframes, yet with a reduced number of sensors, thus effectively enabling implementation of full condition-based maintenance. The net result? Substantial decrease of O&M costs.

Due to its ability to keep historical evaluations, give information on present structural status and  provide prognostics on the evolution of component performance decay, PRODDIA® introduces a new capability of matching mission profiles to the aircrafts conditions. The end result? Increase of operational time for aircrafts.

The extensive collection of historical data on the operational loadings and component responses allows a deeper knowledge of the material behavior and performance, extremely useful for new aircraft design. The net result? Reduction of the weight of aircrafts.

In a nutshell PRODDIA® brings the following benefits:

• Knowledge based maintenance: skip inspection and avoid replace of no fault found parts
• Increased availability, through condition based maintenance
• Effective reduction of operational costs
• Supports lightweight design of aircraft components by reducing number of sensors

PRODDIA® is composed by two sub-systems: the Onboard Data Acquisition and Sensor Network and the PRODDIA Software Workbench.

The Onboard Data Acquisition and Sensor Network

Low density sensor network

Resorting to the proprietary VS2TM Core Technology this system is capable of using a very low number of sensors to achieve very high integral component status with an extremely high degree of reliability.

Full integration

PRODDIA® defaults to COTS certified avionics solutions for the onboard Data Acquisition Center.

COTS Solutions

The Sensor Network is build using industry standard COTS sensors allowing for a fast development and implementation process with regard to reliability.

Midlife upgrades

Operational aircraft with existing sensor packages or with the option to add new sensors and avionics data recorders can benefit from PRODDIA®.

The Workbench

Multi-model integration platform

PRODDIA® can be fully customized to adapt to each customer's requirements. Therefore, besides the innovative Critical Materials supplied VS2TM models for condition assessment, it also allows for the add-on of customer's in-house or 3rd party models.

High levels of reliability

Defaulting to standards and a clever architecture, this platform combines a forward-looking collection of functionalities and solutions with a selection of proven technologies capable of providing high reliability and system stability.

Multi-site integration

The workbench is designed to operate as a multi-site solution, enabling geographically distributed teams to work on the same design or fleet. From an aircraft design entity to a maintenance operator, fleets can range to hundreds of aircrafts.

Graphical User Interface

Designed to serve both designer and maintenance users, PRODDIA's GUI is highly flexible and enables custom fitting.

Users Perspective

Engineering

• Complete monitoring of the components real status and facts-based estimates of the decay of component performance, through time and use, effectively allowing for condition based maintenance operations.

• Operational level early warning of components damage, due to either accidental or unpredictable decay of structural integrity leading to immediate preventive action taking place.

Management

• Improving visibility on the condition status of aircrafts, from a single one to large fleets.
• Deployment of condition based maintenance, maximizing availability of aircrafts. 
• Introduction of aircraft condition based mission planning (defense).

Owners

• Increased return on investment.

• Across the board reduction of maintenance related operational costs.

• While improving asset  value and lifetime.

  Manufacturers

• Complete monitoring of systems and components lifecycle evolution allowing for a wealth of information on performance, durability and maintainability to become available to design and manufacturing teams.

• Improved safety of operation of aircrafts and fleets.

Critical Materials is fully committed to the continuous improvement of PRODDIA®, through coverage of more properties and features.

The company maintains a fully dedicated design and development team composed of experienced, multidisciplinary people focused in raising the bar in the field of structural health monitoring. That is further supported by a services team specialized in the deployment, maintenance and support of PRODDIA®, as well as custom developments.

We are commited to improve the diagnostics and prognostics suite, the increased shop floor usability and management tools.