Since its establishment, Smart Fibres has been working in close collaboration with the Aerospace industry. Indeed, the very technology on which our business started (optical fiber strain sensing) came from within BAE Systems' research laboratories. Through its ongoing collaboration with the key Aerospace industry technologists, Smart Fibres is advancing its technology towards a qualified, flight worthy system which will help increase the availability and utility and reduce the cost of ownership of military platforms.
For more details of our collaborative research, visit our Research pages. To really assess the potential of any technology within an industry, you need to look to the end users.

Here's what one says about ours.

&quotWe foresee Smart structures to represent a multi million dollar market in the military aircraft sector alone within 10 years, with obvious potential throughout the Aerospace Industry. The highly successful practical application of the technology to yacht spars has not only demonstrated the systems maturity but also provided us with a development route that will shorten the pre-qualification path to incorporate the technology in prototype aircraft within 3 years."

Peter Hodgkinson, International Technology Business Manager, BAE Systems, Military Aircraft and Aerostructures.

This aerospace industry potential of Smart Fibres' technology is extensive, but includes: Health and Usage Monitoring System (HUMS) A system providing an accurate record of the load cycling of aircraft can be used to accurately establish the correct time to carry out maintenance inspections. Having such data available will enable inspection intervals to be increased, thus reducing running costs, and also be able to indicate where extreme load cycling has taken place requiring an earlier inspection, thus improving safety.

Damage Detection
Our system can detect damage by comparing current structural responses to historic data and can be used within the bond line to monitor bond failure or delamination between composite and non-composite components.

Design Engineering Information
The incorporation of our system within an airframe provides important design engineering feedback to the aeronautical engineers, with the capability of analysing flight problems such as flutter and instability.

Manufacturing Control
Our system can also aid in the control of manufacturing processes, where it can be used to measure residual loads in the structure as a result of the moulding or cure process, or due to the set up of the part.

Intelligent Control
Ultimately, the load data obtained from an optical fiber strain sensing system could be used to provide the basis of intelligent monitoring of the aircraft's control surfaces leading to the control of the aircraft itself. This concept is being investigated using piezoelectric fiber composites (PFC) embedded in the laminate.

Such laminates are traditionally assessed by mathematical modelling and subsequent structural testing - the ability to collect accurate real-time data on the performance of control surfaces is unique to Smart Fibres' technology.