[Avionics Today 07-15-2016] UTC Aerospace Systems has licensed the MD7-Pro digital Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) system from Metis Design Corporation to support the aerospace industry’s growing need for SHM applications. Metis Design Corp. based in Boston, Massachusetts, is a technical consulting firm that focuses on SHM and multifunctional materials. The company’s use of the MD7-Pro system will enhance its current Health and Usage Management Systems (HUMS) by adding SHM to its portfolio of health management solutions.
UTC Aerospace Systems’ enhancements and developments of this system are designed to enable aircraft structure checks in less than five minutes, and to reduce manual inspection time and cost while maximizing aircraft fleet availability. According to UTC, the system will be capable of identifying crack size and location, loose fasteners and corrosion, and providing higher fidelity data through digitizing sensor signals at the point of measurement. Furthermore, the system will make structural health data available to operators to enable future extension of the useful life of aircraft components and systems.