The French Institute for Technological Research (IRT Jules Verne, Bouguenais) and its esteemed partners, including Airbus, Axiome, Daher, Testia, and CEA List, have announced the successful completion of the FANTOM project. This collaborative initiative marks a significant achievement in the automation of nondestructive testing (NDT) for the aerospace industry, bringing about a major advancement in the inspection of large composite parts used in aerospace production.
Over the course of three years, the FANTOM project has brought together the combined expertise of its partners to create an innovative, robotized platform designed to address the challenges of flexibility and efficiency in composite part inspections. In the aeronautics sector, where the quality and safety of composite structures are critical, NDT operations are often lengthy and costly. The FANTOM project has introduced a breakthrough solution to streamline these operations.
The cobotic platform developed through FANTOM is capable of automated, adaptive inspections. This flexibility enables optimized inspection procedures, significantly reducing part downtime—an increasingly vital consideration as aerospace production accelerates.
The outcomes of the FANTOM project are expected to usher in a new era of robotized NDT systems that are not only highly adaptable for aerospace production lines but can also be integrated into other industries, such as energy and naval sectors.
“This project has enabled us to remove major technological barriers,” said Nicolas Colin, technical leader of the project and NDT expert at IRT Jules Verne. “Thanks to FANTOM, we have taken a crucial step towards more intelligent, more agile NDT, better adapted to current and future industrial needs.”
With these achievements, the FANTOM project has made a lasting impact on the automation of NDT, setting the stage for further innovations that will shape the future of industrial production processes worldwide.
Reference: https://www.compositesworld.com/news/fantom-project-forms-basis-for-automated-aerocomposite-ndt
