Curtiss-Wright Collaborates With Critical Materials To Offer Pre-Integrated Airborne Structural Health Management System
PARIS AIR SHOW – JUNE 16, 2015 – Curtiss-Wright Corporation (NYSE: CW) today announced that its Defense Solutions division and Critical Materials S.A. have signed a MOU to develop one of the aviation industry’s first integrated Structural Health Management (SHM) system solutions. Under the agreement, Defense Solutions’ Avionics & Electronics business will integrate Critical Materials’ PRODDIA® AERO software suite with Curtiss-Wright’s Acra KAM-500 Data Acquisition Unit (DAU) subsystem and offer it to the market through its worldwide sales channels. The PRODDIA AERO platform automates data transfer, management and analysis for any fleet size or composition. This new SHM system solution will speed and simplify the deployment of aircraft usage monitoring and structural health monitoring capabilities to help increase platform availability and reduce Operating & Management costs.
“Aviation customers, seeking advanced methods to safely extend the operational life of their airborne fleets, desire proven and dependable Structural Health Management solutions,” said Lynn Bamford, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Defense Solutions division. “Through our collaboration with Critical Materials, we are excited to provide the market with one of the first fully integrated, pre-qualified SHM system offerings. Additionally, this ‘out-of-the-box’ rugged solution reduces development time and risk, speeding time to deployment.”
“This combined offering provides our aviation customers with a fully deployable Structural Health Management solution integrating best-in-class technology for data acquisition and subsequent diagnosis and prognosis of structural status,” said Gustavo Dias, CEO Critical Materials. “We look forward to working with Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions to deliver this structural health monitoring and aircraft usage monitoring capability to our customers.”
About PRODDIA AERO
PRODDIA AERO is a state-of-the-art Structural Health Monitoring software suite for highly complex structural systems. It is designed for use where high diversity of structural arrangements demands increased flexibility. PRODDIA’s ease of deployment in existing operational platforms and new designs, advanced structural modeling, and support for different sensor technologies, makes it ideal for demanding SHM applications.
About the Acra KAM-500
The Acra KAM-500 is a compact, low-power, modular DAU that has been developed through decades of experience and heavy investment in R&D. Driven by hardwired finite state machines, the DAU is extremely reliable, and its small size makes it ideal for installing in locations that have limited space. The Acra KAM-500 has passed rigorous environmental testing ensuring it is fully qualified for aerospace applications, enabling rugged flight data acquisition in the harshest of environments. Under the agreement, Curtiss-Wright will integrate the PRODDIA AERO, developed by Critical Materials in Guimarães, Portugal, with its Acra KAM-500 DAU chassis at its Avionics & Electronics business in Dublin, Ireland.
About Curtiss-Wright Corporation
Curtiss-Wright Corporation (NYSE:CW) is a global innovative company that delivers highly engineered, critical function products and services to the commercial, industrial, defense and energy markets. Building on the heritage of Glenn Curtiss and the Wright brothers, Curtiss-Wright has a long tradition of providing reliable solutions through trusted customer relationships. The company employs approximately 9,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit www.curtisswright.com.
