Well, more precisely, it’s 5½ years, but our anniversary in December passed us by as we busied ourselves with deadlines.
The current situation is allowing us some time to both look forward to the future and to reflect on our achievements.
JetSoft was incorporated in 2014 with nothing more than an idea and the aim of helping companies to manage and unlock the potential of their testing data. Over the past 5 years, we are extremely proud to have successfully developed a respected product suite and delivered it to companies both in Europe and the States. Our solutions are reducing time demands on key personnel, increasing our customers’ value proposition and supplying insight enabling companies to operate more efficiently.
Projects have been a heady mix of being interesting and varied, challenging and rewarding. JetSoft customers and projects can be split into 4 categories:
- Manufacturers looking to reduce time demands on key personnel, improve traceability and reduce scrap
- Test houses wishing to improve their digital systems as well as increase their value proposition by providing additional information and statistics beyond pass/fail
- Commission based customers wishing to use our skillsets to build them something specific
- R&D projects
Manufacturers
The first installation of OverSeer, JetSoft’s core framework, was for an aluminium plant in Birmingham, UK. I will always have gratitude for the team there that had the vision to take the leap and be the first install. In addition, their feedback has been instrumental in forming the product that we have today. This was the start of a continuing trend for developments and features to be customer and market led.
The first installation of OverSeer, JetSoft’s core framework, was for an aluminium plant in Birmingham, UK. I will always have gratitude for the team there that had the vision to take the leap and be the first install. In addition, their feedback has been instrumental in forming the product that we have today. This was the start of a continuing trend for developments and features to be customer and market led.
This water looks too clean
The benefits that this system is providing, including cataloguing ultrasonic and conductivity inspection data, automated data validation, improving inter departmental communication and suppling defect statistics, was picked up by the big sister plant in the US, who have installed OverSeer and taken it to the next level. For them we have developed world leading automatic defect recognition software which uses a mix of AI and machine learning with deterministic approaches to spot and classify defects, indications and other patterns. This system has now been in active use in production for nearly 2 years, alongside human inspectors to provide an additional automatic, independent, consistent, assessment for an improved quality check.
The data provided by OverSeer has directly resulted in process improvements leading to a scrap saving in excess of $1million dollars in the first year alone. These results give us great pride and validate the initial aim of the company to exploit the value of the often overlooked quality data.
This installation system continues to grow as we work on some new secret exciting developments. Watch this space.
The data provided by OverSeer has directly resulted in process improvements leading to a scrap saving in excess of $1million dollars in the first year alone. These results give us great pride and validate the initial aim of the company to exploit the value of the often overlooked quality data.
This installation system continues to grow as we work on some new secret exciting developments. Watch this space.
Test houses
We work with several test houses, who are generally looking for us to help them with digitising their documentation and supplying a scalable software solution for managing the way they process components.
We work with several test houses, who are generally looking for us to help them with digitising their documentation and supplying a scalable software solution for managing the way they process components.
NDT Office
All customers have their own unique requirements, from a system which enables field engineers to register results and job cards into a centralised system through managing people, process and equipment documentation and linking with inspection reports to providing a portal for clients to interact with test results and statistics.
We see this a growing market area for JetSoft, as aerospace Primes and Tier 1s require their test houses to provide an increased amount of information and statistics. For example, Rolls Royce now demand individual operator pass rates from their NDT shops.
We see this a growing market area for JetSoft, as aerospace Primes and Tier 1s require their test houses to provide an increased amount of information and statistics. For example, Rolls Royce now demand individual operator pass rates from their NDT shops.
Software commission
Another of JetSoft’s early projects was a commission for NewGen NDT to design and build NxtGen a solution for digitising and monitoring the dye penetrant process. A combination of hardware and software, the inline system takes and tracks sensor readings over time and alerts should conditions go out of specification. The versatile product is under constant improvement with features including tracking parts through the process, improving traceability, automating reporting and generating operator and quality performance metrics. The architecture of the system means the system is incredibly adaptable and can be applied to many different manufacturing processes, not just NDT.
Another commission based piece of work was for a Dutch aerospace company who were (and still are) running unsupported inspection equipment from a manufacturer which is no longer operational. Aerospace requirements require the data to be retained, with the ability to be accessed and viewed, for the lifetime of the aircraft. To solve this business critical problem, we reverse engineered the format and provided a simple application for converting the inspection files to a format that they could open.
R&D
In 2018 and 2019 we were part of an exciting consortium working on the c£900k RASCAL research project. This project aimed to reduce the reliance on Computed Tomography NDT techniques for safety critical additive manufactured components, a well know problem in the industry. The project used a multimodal approach combining data from different inspection techniques. As the ‘software company’ we played an important role in developing the very well received robotic system, developing a software package capable of performing an extensible list of automatic assessments, fusing data, performing automatic defect recognition and integrating the results into a digital manufacturing environment.
In 2018 and 2019 we were part of an exciting consortium working on the c£900k RASCAL research project. This project aimed to reduce the reliance on Computed Tomography NDT techniques for safety critical additive manufactured components, a well know problem in the industry. The project used a multimodal approach combining data from different inspection techniques. As the ‘software company’ we played an important role in developing the very well received robotic system, developing a software package capable of performing an extensible list of automatic assessments, fusing data, performing automatic defect recognition and integrating the results into a digital manufacturing environment.
Demonstrating RASCAL to some dignitaries
As you can see, our first 5 years have been very successful which wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work of the JetSoft team, and our extended support network, from friends and families to customers and associates! You know who you are and thank you.
If you would like any more information on any of the projects discussed here, think we may be able to help you, or would just like a chat, please do not hesitate to get in contact.
Thanks
The JetSoft team.
