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A new Electronic Gantry Applied Drilling System has been developed and demonstrated which provides a CNC controlled, multi-axis drilling system to replace hand drilling and countersinking operations at Assembly Jig Stations. Therefore improving hole quality while reducing touch labor and tooling costs. The system has statistical process control capabilities which confirm position accuracy for tooling details, parts holes.

“One shot” drilling and countersinking multiple stack ups of dissimilar materials with automated equipment requires a system of elements and controls. Each of the elements necessary to drill and countersink multiple stack ups of dissimilar materials in a single operation has been successfully combined and applied to an automated system. An explanation will be provided for the use of Microsoft Excel, standard drill libraries and math formulas to rapidly determine and insert the proper end effector position and drill/countersink commands into the machine control programming code. Surface location identification for coordination of the machine time and measurement based coding and the machine components necessary to interact with the time and measurement based machine code will also be explained.

This paper describes the effects of automation on the assembly of airframes. The paper addresses current practices and the need to increase efficiency to reduce cost in a shrinking market. Assembly automation strategies and issues surrounding the automation of airframe assemblies is discussed and solutions suggested.