Aerospace sector and Industry Canada plan collaborative projects to boost competitiveness

Bombardier, Pratt & Whitney major players

Industry Canada is teaming with the aerospace sector, including Canada’s largest aircraft manufacturers, to develop a suite of national, collaborative research projects in a key technology area considered critical to the future viability and competitiveness of the industry. A group of more than 50 industry and government representatives met in Montreal last month to try and reach consensus on the nature of government-industry collaboration in the area of diagnostics, prognostics and health management (DPHM) for aero-propulsion and aircraft mechanism systems.

It’s expected that once the group meets again in September, a small number of projects and funding sources will be identified, similar in nature to projects developed in Quebec under the Consortium for Research and Innovation in Aerospace in Quebec (CRIAQ) — except on a national scale.

In additional to the aerospace firms themselves, potential funding sources include Technology Partnerships Canada, the National Research Council and the Industrial Research Assistance Program. Another potential source is the $1 billion in new funding announced by the Liberal Party during the election campaign for R&D to support the automotive sector and others, including aerospace.

“This is music to my ears. DPHM is one of our top 10 technology areas. It’s a discriminator especially for our size of engines,” says Dr Hany Moustapha, a principal fellow and manager of technology and collaboration programs with Pratt & Whitney Canada Corp. “These projects will involve universities, research centres, the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Microelectronics Corp. Industry Canada is entertaining collaborative and solo projects.”

Simply put these are a broad spectrum of primary and enabling technologies that can drive down the cost of building, purchasing, operating and maintaining aircraft by improving reliability and flight safety. Competitive advantage is sought by aiming projects for integrated systems at the earliest design stages. Projects fall broadly into the category of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), which is one of the fastest growing areas of aerospace R&D. In addition to the DPHM project, Industry Canada and the aerospace sector are developing projects for composite materials and cabin management (electronics).

Projects could include R&D to examine metal fatigue in aircraft engines or hot gases emitted as engine exhaust.

The DPHM project has had a long gestation and reflects the efforts of a number of groups including the Aerospace Industry Association of Canada (AIAC). Industry Canada and the industry have been working closely with AIAC’s technology council. The council has been involved in the development of two generations of technology road maps for the aerospace sector and the current initiative — a technology insertion roadmap — is essentially a streamlined, action-oriented version. Industry Canada describes the process as “a high impact technology roadmap that is performed in an abbreviated timeframe, typically six months”.

“It dispenses with some of the rigour and gets the key players together to document key technologies,” says an Industry Canada official. “We’re going to get at least two or three projects out of this.”

BUILDS ON JSF PARTICIPATION

The DPHM project provides a continuum established by Canada’s participation in the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) project. Canada joined JSF in 2002 as a Level III participant at the system development and demonstration phase. Canada has committed to spend a minimum of $240 million over 10 years, allowing many Canadian firms to collaborate on projects for dual-use (civilian-military) technologies, including P&WC and Honeywell Canada Ltd (R$, February 27/02).

CRIAQ EXPERIENCE BENEFICIAL

Participants in the DPHM project have the benefit of CRIAQ’s experience in forging collaborative projects involving players from different sectors and cultures. CRIAQ is currently funding two projects involving MEMS and its members have worked hard to hammer our sensitive intellectual property issues. That retained knowledge complements a Guide to Consortium Development & Intellectual Property Issues recently issued by Industry Canada.

“Companies can save a good bit of money by doing these things and Canada has quite a bit of capability in this area,” says the official. “We’re trying to get companies to work together and share their technologies. The idea is to get the players together and analyze market needs and technology drivers and then get some projects going.”

Participants are confident that their efforts will produce a permanent DPHM working group that will oversee future collaborative projects as DPHM technologies spread to other aircraft systems and components. Similar bodies have been established in the US and the European Union.

“We’re committed to working together for increased collaboration to march together toward the competition,” says the official. “The initial focus is on engines but it’s expanded into very complex technologies and it’s now getting into other part of the aircraft like landing gear and the fuselage”

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