National Research Council Canada (NRC) is a government organization that maintains eighteen research institutes across Canada specializing in a spectrum of scientific domains including, among others, nanotechnology, fuel cell technologies, maritime innovation, biotech and aerospace research. All the research institutes operate on a collaborative basis for the benefit of Canadian industry, the scientific community, and government entities.

"One of NRC's roles is to bridge the gap between important research being done at the university level, and real-world technological challenges being addressed in the private sector," says Michael Nituch, manager of program management and international relations at the Institute for Aerospace Research.

In the case with the Aerospace Manufacturing Technology Centre, NRC supplies the capital investment to locate its researchers and facilities in an appropriate regional center, private industry brings real world challenges, and the academic community provides complementary facilities and researchers. Roughly one-third of NRC research institutes are currently located on university campuses. The greater part of the Institute for Aerospace Research is however, located on the main NRC campus in Ottawa, which is not on a university site.

Canada's aerospace sector is the fourth largest in the world (after the U.S., U.K., and France) and a major employer within the country. Specializing in business aircraft, commercial helicopters, landing gear, avionics, and the development of flight simulators, it generates more than $20 billion in annual revenue. Aerospace manufacturing has been a major contributor to the Canadian economy over the past half century and R&D in manufacturing technologies represents an opportunity to support this sector.

"The Institute for Aerospace Research has a number of aerospace facilities with wind tunnels and experimental aircraft, but we didn't have any substantial presence in aircraft design and manufacturing. Our studies showed that there was a need for this type of research program, so in 1999 a proposal was made to develop the Centre," says Nituch.

Forging the Future

More than half of the country's aerospace industry is concentrated around Montreal, including Bombardier Aerospace, Bell's civil helicopter division, Pratt & Whitney Canada, CAE—the world's leading manufacturer of flight simulators—and all their related support businesses. Montreal is also home to more than 300 small-to-medium size aerospace enterprises (defined as less than 500 employees). So when NRC went looking for a location to build the new center, Québec’s Université de Montréal was an obvious choice.

The University provided a piece of property that came with its own set of architectural challenges. The location is long and narrow (385 feet long by 70 feet wide) and, as part of the main University campus, it is an architecturally protected site.

"Everything on the external facade was highly constrained. The stonework, glass walls, and landscape all had to match what was already in the local area," says Nituch.

The site is on the side of a mountain and has a five meter elevation difference between the two opposite corners, with a solid rock substrate. It sits at the intersection of two roads, each with different height restrictions. The long axis of the building had a height limit of three stories, while the short axis had a restriction of five.

Facility design took 15 months and was done by an architectural consortium consisting of Montreal-based Dallaire, Boutros & Pratte, and Bélanger Beauchemin Architects & Associates, of Québec. Construction, which also took 15 months, was conducted by Hervé Pomerleau Inc. of Saint-Georges, Québec. The facility was completed December 2003, with occupancy beginning February 2004.

Form and Function

The facility consists of a three-story manufacturing lab intersected by a five-story tower containing office space and meeting rooms with limited R&D lab space on the ground floor.

The primary lab is a three-story, 13,000-sf high-bay manufacturing space with a massive skylight providing quality daylight, and a 50-foot span, 10-ton capacity overhead rolling crane that can reach anywhere in the room. Specialized laboratories with 15-foot-high ceilings are clustered by specialty around the perimeter of the high-bay. All heavy equipment and lab space is situated on the ground floor. Electrical, mechanical, and network services are supplied along the walls and via trenches in the floor covered by steel safety panels.

"We want to move equipment around the high-bay as our needs change. So we put a network of trenches in the floor that can provide a path for electricity, hydraulic power, running water, compressed air, data, and any other services anywhere we need them," says Nituch.

The second level contains the main entrance, meeting areas, and a mezzanine with researcher offices overlooking the high-bay. There is a meeting room large enough to hold the facility's entire 100-person staff, and several flexible collaboration rooms. Though a few open offices will be used for technical support and visiting researchers, most of the facility's offices are closed.

"In cases where we have put in open offices, the researchers have preferred to close them, when finances permit, so as to obtain the privacy that working with different collaborators may require and to get a better environment in what can be a noisy situation with large lab equipment in the vicinity. So we created mostly closed spaces to begin with. Most will be occupied on a shared office basis, which is a reasonable compromise between the open and closed extremes," says Nituch.

Computer modeling suites are located on the third level away from the main lab, but close to where the network cabling enters the building. Administration, finance, marketing, and business offices are also on the third floor. The mechanical penthouse is on the fifth floor with HVAC services fed to the building through large cylinders.

Design and Deliver

The AMTC will facilitate Canada's transition to next-generation manufacturing, particularly among small and medium sized enterprises. Areas of development will include the forming and joining of metals and composite materials, robotic automation, process modeling, high-speed material removal, development of strategic information management systems, and virtual manufacturing.

The complex has a diverse array of specialized equipment. Capabilities include robotic laser welding, electron beam welding, linear friction welding, liquid plastic molding, fiber placement technologies, an autoclave, and high-speed metal removal equipment that can reduce a 100 pound piece of aluminum to a five pound aircraft part within minutes. There is also a large Class-five cleanroom that will be used for manufacturing composite material parts.

Safety and Security

Though the building is designed on principles of collaboration, access is tightly controlled. The facility has only one entrance on the second floor, and three exits, all monitored by closed-circuit camera. Physical access to the lab space and between floors is controlled in layers by a key card system.

Other safety measures include a buddy system which dictates that no one works alone on any equipment at any time. Labs are locked down after-hours and there are regular security patrols.

Since many of the facility's tools are expensive and can be hazardous, an in-house "licensing" system designates who is allowed to operate what. Outside researchers and visiting staff must partner with a licensed staff member in order to use equipment.

"The research tools are not lab bench scale but full size large manufacturing equipment that would be typically found in an aircraft manufacturing plant," says Nituch. "It makes sense to employ the same safety philosophy that would be employed in industry, where there is a lot of safe operating experience with this scale of equipment."

Interdisciplinary Integration

A key focal point for the facility is interdisciplinary teamwork between researchers from different fields. Foremost among the facility's collaborative features is its physical location directly across the street from the University of Montreal engineering school.

Partnerships with private organizations will be leveraged on a project basis. Among the 100-person staff there will be approximately 50 NRC employees, some of whom are adjunct professors at the three major Montreal universities, and another 50 guest workers from industry and academic institutions, including Ph.D. and undergrad students.

"We are bringing together experts from the entire scientific community—metallurgists, process specialists, engineers, physicists—to transform fundamental aspects of traditional aerospace manufacturing," says Nituch.

Because industrial partnerships and project needs will define how space is developed, some of the facility has yet to be programmed.

"We are forging relationships with new partners so we have to get into things more deeply before we can move forward with full intention. The fourth floor is currently unfinished, and remains one of our challenges. We've always planned on having incubator space there but, since we are trying to touch the whole spectrum of aerospace industry, it is very difficult at this point to know exactly what we will need to respond to our clients' needs," says Nituch.

By Johnathon Allen