An End-to-End Digital Thread for Accelerated and Automated Composite Repair for Aerospace

This presentation introduces a complete end-to-end digital thread solution for composite aerospace structures, connecting inspection, repair patch design, manufacturing, and certification within a single data-driven workflow. Inspection data is interpreted and embedded into a Digital Twin, enabling rapid, damage-specific patch design and automated scarfing and repair execution; followed by, in-situ process monitoring, supporting patch adhesion quality and certification. By extending similar techniques and methodologies employed in digital thread for repair, advances and innovations can also be applied further—using AI-enhanced monitoring for manufacturing—the approach ensures continuous lifecycle data capture, allowing for as-manufactured part performance prediction, improved part quality, reliability, and future design and repair decision-making.