University helps solve aircraft problems

An agreement to cooperate in solving problems in aircraft manufacture has been signed by the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology and Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC).

They will develop technologies to address challenges such as how to recycle waste water and gas and how to remotely detect and analyze damage using 5G wireless technologies. They will also work together to promote the use of 3D printing in aircraft design, manufacturing and testing.

The university said it has been cooperating with the company in the manufacture of civil aircraft parts. Last year it took part in a program to develop technologies for making titanium alloy parts. This resulted in halving production times and reducing costs by 30 percent. The program is now being industrialized.

Aircraft manufacture produces high-risk waste liquid and gas. Researchers from the university’s school of environment and architecture, school of optical-electrical and computer engineering and college of science have worked together to recycle the waste at low cost. The university researchers have also provided cross-disciplinary research plans to develop technologies demanded by COMAC for nondestructive inspection of composite materials.

Under the agreement, they will explore new ways of cooperation in research and talent cultivation.

Some professors and students have already contributed their expertise in the development of the C919, China’s first domestically developed narrow-body passenger, according to the university.

Du Baojiang, a professor at the university, and his team had joined with the COMAC Shanghai Aircraft Design and Research Institute to participate in 3D virtual design of some parts of the civil aircraft. In seven years, more than 200 students from the university had worked on the team and some continued working on related programs after graduation.

They included Wang Jiajie who graduated from the university’s school of mechanical engineering and joined COMAC Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing Co. His job is to research aircraft quality for improvement.

“The university has laid a solid foundation of engineering for me and helped me adapt into work quickly at COMAC,” he said. “I wish to see more schoolmates join China’s aviation industry in the future.”