Boeing on Nov. 6 helped unveil the new Integrated Vehicle Health Management Centre of Excellence at Cranfield University in England. The IVHM research centre, of which Boeing is one of the founding partners, focuses on developing tools and techniques for automatically diagnosing vehicle system and subsystem health to streamline maintenance and ensure system readiness. These technologies have numerous applications in the aerospace industry.

Boeing announced in 2007 its investment in the collaborative research venture. Other founding partners are BAE Systems, Meggitt PLC, Thales UK, Rolls-Royce and the East of England Development Agency.

“Boeing’s investment in the centre is part of the company’s global research-and-development strategy,” said Sir Roger Bone, Boeing United Kingdom president. “It is another example of our commitment and faith in the research-and-development capabilities in the United Kingdom and is intended to speed the development of this important technology.”

“With the help of the talented students and faculty at Cranfield, we expect that the IVHM Centre of Excellence will help create the technology building blocks needed for better integrated vehicle health management systems,” added Peter Lawrence, director of Support Technology at Boeing Phantom Works. “Our customers want breakthrough performance and extreme affordability in our product offerings. IVHM can help us do that.”

The IVHM center follows the model of the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre with Boeing at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom, which Boeing helped launch in 2001. The AMRC performs advanced manufacturing technology research.

“The University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre with Boeing has proven a success that adds value to Boeing’s businesses and puts us at the forefront of the latest research,” Bone said. “The IVHM is well positioned to grow into a similar success.”