Collins Aerospace wins 17th annual Nondestructive Testing Innovation Award from Airlines for America and SAE International

• Additive Design & Manufacturing team leverages 3D Computed Tomography to evaluate components
  
• Decreases component development time by 50% and enables faster delivery to customers
  

CHARLOTTE, NC (Oct. 30, 2019) – Collins Aerospace Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corp., (NYSE: UTX), recently received the 17th annual Nondestructive Testing (NTD) Innovation Award presented by Airlines for America and SAE International for using 3D Computed Tomography (CT) to advance aircraft structural inspection. This award recognizes teams that have developed and applied a technology, technique, process, or policy that advances inspection or test of commercial aircraft structures, aircraft components or aircraft systems.

A collaborative effort between Collins Aerospace Materials and Process Engineering and United Technologies Research Center – the research and innovation arm of UTC – was awarded the recognition due to novel use of 3D CT, which is a nondestructive scanning technology that allows users to view and inspect the external and internal structures of an object in a 3D space technique, made it possible to determine product defects faster and more efficiently than current “build and destroy” approaches. With this approach, product development time is reduced by approximately 50 percent, which results in faster deliveries of critical components to airlines and OEM’s.

The award-winning methodology has been key to the development of additively manufactured heat exchangers for aerospace applications enabling significant performance enhancement through innovative design.

“Creating value for our customers through performance – parts or process - is and will always be a focus of Collins Aerospace, and we are only now scratching the surface with what can be done with additive” said Paula Hay, executive director Additive Design and Manufacturing at Collins Aerospace. “This achievement is evidence that our continued investment in additive and digital technology as well as collaboration across the Collins network is making a direct impact to our customers.”