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On Airbus aircraft, the undercarriage reinforcing is attached through the lower wing skin using bolts up to 1-inch in diameter through as much as a 4-inch stack up. This operation typically takes place in the wing box assembly jigs. Manual hole drilling for these bolts has traditionally required massive drill templates and large positive feed drill motors. In spite of these large tools, the holes must be drilled in multiple steps to reduce the thrust loads, which adds process time. For the new A380, Airbus UK wanted to explore a more efficient method of drilling these large diameter holes. Introducing automated drilling equipment, which is capable of drilling these holes and still allows for the required manual access within the wing box assembly jig, was a significant challenge. To remain cost effective, the equipment must be flexible and mobile, a llowing it to be used on multiple assemblies.

Nova-Tech Engineering, Inc. designs and builds integrated assembly tooling for the assembly of aluminum and composite aircraft. The functions of these tools are greatly enhanced through the application of Distributed Network Architecture (DNA) among the components of the tool. Nova-Tech uses a DNA to facilitate communications between the different sub-sections of the tool. Each subsection works independently yet still communicates to the main controller. The distributed nature of the control significantly reduces the amount of wiring and hardware required, standardizes data communications between components, and reduces unnecessary communication traffic and overhead. A single PLC acts as the main overall control, localized motion controllers provide positioning intelligence, and CNC’s control drilling and fastening operations. A best-of-breed approach was used to select the components.