RIT helps redesign Navy kit

Engineers at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) are using laser scanning technology to help the US Navy redesign aircraft components.

Michael Haselkorn, senior staff engineer at RIT’s Center for Integrated Manufacturing Studies, is leading a team of professors and scientists along with engineers from Acro Industries, a local Rochester manufacturer, in a major project to redesign and improve components of the Navy’s EA-6B jet. They aim to reduce costs and improve the safety of the EA-6B, one of the Navy’s key aircraft types.

Haselkorn is currently working with Raymond Grosshans, professor of industrial and science technology at RIT, to utilise new laser scanning technology to create a three-dimensional digital schematic of the turtleback, the metal cover over the EA-6B’s fuselage. They use the schematic to build a solid model from which they can perform a structural analysis of the part to identify flaws and improve quality. This analysis was previously time consuming due to lack of accurate schematics, making improved manufacture of parts extremely difficult.