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Large diameter, tightly toleranced fastener patterns are commonplace in aerospace structures. Satisfactory generation of these holes is often challenging and can be further complicated by difficult or obstructed access. Bespoke tooling and drill jigs are typically used in conjunction with power feed units leading to a manual, inflexible, and expensive manufacturing process. For 777X flap production, Boeing and Electroimpact collaborated to create a novel, automated solution to generate the fastener holes for the main carrier fitting attachment pattern. Existing robotic automation used for skin to substructure assembly was modified to utilize extended length (up to 635mm), bearing-supported drill bar sub-assemblies. These Long Assembly Drills (LADs) had to be easily attached and detached by one operator, interface with the existing spindle(s), supply cutting lubricant, extract swarf on demand, and include a means for automatically locating datum features.

Equipment used in aerospace non-destructive inspection presents opportunity for modernization. Many inspection cells in production operate using a widely available control system software that is suitable for most inspection applications with minimal customization. The size and complex geometry of airframe components demand more application-specific system design to ensure the reliability and cycle time required for an aerospace production schedule. Ordinary inspection systems require manual teaching for program generation and lack datum-finding systems required to rerun programs without modification. Integration of offline programming software and machine vision instruments can save inspection technicians hours or shifts per part by eliminating the need for program retraining due to variation in part delivery position. Modernized inspection cells will reduce labor burden on technicians and provide reliable cycle time information to production planners.

As the aerospace industry moves toward determinate assembly and ever-tighter manufacturing tolerances, there is a need for automated, high-precision milling, trimming and drilling equipment that is specialized for aerospace applications. Precision countersinking is a common requirement for aircraft parts, but this is not a process that typical general-purpose milling machines are able to accommodate without the use of specialty tools such as depth-stop tool holders. To meet this need, Electroimpact has designed a 5-axis milling machine with high-speed clamping capability for countersink depth control. A custom trunnion and head with a quill and an additional clamp axis provide clamping functionality similar in speed and precision to a riveting machine, while maintaining the accuracy and features of a conventional machining center.

This essential information captures the state of the composites industry to assist engineering/technical professionals in charting a course for achieving economic success. The material characteristics of composites, their applications, and complex composites manufacturing processes depend on many factors. These are all fully considered and presented to meet the challenges that face this marketplace.

Minimizing the stress concentrations around cutouts in a plate is often a design problem, especially in the Aerospace industry. A problem of optimizing spatially varying fiber paths in a symmetric, linear orthotropic composite laminate with a cutout, so as to achieve minimum stress concentration under remote unidirectional tensile loading is of interest in this study. A finite element (FE) model is developed to this extent, which constraints the fiber angles while optimizing the fiber paths, proving essential in manufacturing processes. The idea to be presented could be used to derive fiber paths that would drastically reduce the Stress Concentration Factor (SCF) in a symmetric laminate by using spatially varying fibers in place of unidirectional fibers. The model is proposed for a four layer symmetric laminate, and can be easily reproduced for any number of layers.

A new automated production system for installation of Lightweight Groove Proportioned (LGP) and Hi-Lock bolts in wing panels has been implemented in the Boeing 737 wing manufacturing facility in Renton, Washington. The system inserts LGP and Hi-Lok bolts into interference holes using a ball screw mechanical squeeze process supported by a back side rod-locked pneumatic clamp cylinder. Collars are fed and loaded onto a swage die retaining pin, and swaging is performed through ball screw mechanical squeeze. Offset and straight collar tools allow the machine to access 99.9% of fasteners in 3/16″, ¼″ and 5/16″ diameters. Collar stripping forces are resolved using a dynamic ram inertial technique that reduces the pull on the work piece. Titanium TN nuts are fed and loaded into a socket with a retaining spring, and installed on Hi-Loks Hi-Lok with a Bosch right angle nut runner.

The Boeing Company has developed a mobile robotic drilling and fastening system for use in assembly processes on the lower panel of a horizontally fixtured wing. The robotic system, referred to as Lower-panel Drilling and Fastening System (LPDFS), was initially developed as part of an initiative to minimize facilities costs by not requiring costly foundation work. It is designed to operate with a high level of autonomy, minimizing operator intervention, including that required for machine setup and tool changes. System design enables positioning the work piece at a lower ergonomic height for concurrent manual processes. In all aspects of design, the system will maintain maximum flexibility for accommodating future manufacturing changes and increases in production rate, while meeting the strict accuracy requirements characteristic of aircraft manufacturing.

The Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) machine layup run time in large scale AFP layup cells consumes approximately 30% of the entire part build time. Consequentially, further reductions to the run time of the AFP machine part programs result in small improvements to the overall cycle time. This document discusses how Electroimpact's integrated system and cell design reduces the overall cycle time by reducing the time spent on non-machine processes.

Over 1,200 large diameter holes must be drilled into the side-of-body join on a Boeing commercial aircraft's fuselage. The material stack-ups are multiple layers of primarily titanium and CFRP. Due to assembly constraints, the holes must be drilled for one-up-assembly (no disassembly for deburr). In order to improve productivity, reduce manual drilling processes and improve first-time hole quality, Boeing set out to automate the drilling process in their Side-of-Body join cell. Implementing an automated solution into existing assembly lines was complicated by the location of the target area, which is over 15 feet (4 meters) above the factory floor. The Side-of-Body Drilling machines (Figure 1) are capable of locating, drilling, measuring and fastening holes with less than 14 seconds devoted to non-drilling operations. Drilling capabilities provided for holes up to ¾″ in diameter through stacks over 4.5″ thick in a titanium/CFRP environment.

Flex Track Drilling systems have been successfully implemented into several production environments and scenarios over the past couple of years. They continue to see a high demand where traditional machine tool implementations might be prohibitive due to cost or existing jig structures. This demand for innovation has led to a unique Flex Track design termed an Offset Flex Track that not only works between the vacuum rails, but can work beyond the envelope of the rails. This allows the machine to be used in situations such as the leading edge of wings where the vacuum rails cannot straddle the work envelope. The next evolution of this Offset machine is the introduction of final fastener installation onto the head using an onboard rivet gun. In addition, the camera used to locate datum points on the fuselage is now integrated into the nose piece, eliminating the need for a tool change to a spindle mounted camera.

As a result of recommendation from the Augustine Panel, the direction for Human Space Flight has been altered from the original plan referred to as Constellation. NASA's Human Exploration Framework Team (HEFT) proposes the use of a Shuttle Derived Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle (SDLV) and an Orion derived spacecraft (salvaged from Constellation) to support a new flexible direction for space exploration. The SDLV must be developed within an environment of a constrained budget and a preferred fast development schedule. Thus, it has been proposed to utilize existing assets from the Shuttle Program to speed development at a lower cost. These existing assets should not only include structures such as external tanks or solid rockets, but also the Flight Software which has traditionally been a ?long pole? in new development efforts. The avionics and software for the Space Shuttle was primarily developed in the 70's and considered state of the art for that time.

The Efficient Assembly, Integration & Test (EAIT) team at Boeing Research & Technology, Boeing's central technology organization, is working on multiple implementations of Augmented Reality to aid assembly at the satellite production facility in El Segundo, CA. This presentation will discuss our work to bring an Augmented Reality tool to the shop floor, integrating product design and manufacturing techniques into a synergistic backbone and how this approach can support the delivery of engineering design intent on the shop floor. The team is developing a system to bring designer's 3D CAD models to the technicians on the shop floor, and spatially register them to live camera views of production hardware. We will discuss our work in evaluating multiple motion captures systems, how we integrated a Vicon system with Augmented Reality software, and our development of a user interface allowing technicians to manipulate the graphical display.

Electroimpact and Boeing are improving the efficiency and reliability of the Boeing 777 spar assembly process. In 1992, the Boeing 777 spar shop installed Giddings and Lewis spar machines with Electroimpact Inc. EMR(1) (Electromagnetic Riveting) technology. In 2011, Electroimpact Inc. began replacing the original spar machines with next generation assembly machines. The new carriages incorporate a number of technical improvements and advancements over the current system. These technical advancements have facilitated a 50% increase in average cycle rate, as well as improvements to overall process efficiency, reliability and maintainability. Boeing and Electroimpact have focused on several key technology areas as opportunities for significant technical improvements.

The use of paint automation in commercial aircraft production is being studied to reduce process cycle times, provide a higher quality paint finish, lower emissions, and increase process consistency. The cost of new aircraft paint hangars and increasing production rates is driving a need for increased capacity in existing facilities by using new coatings and technology. Testing of robotic painting at Boeing has uncovered unique differences between aerospace and automotive applications. Paint cure times, number of paint colors, environment control, and part size considerations are some of the issues that make aerospace application of coatings more difficult than automotive applications. Understanding the unique factors involved in the robotic application of commercial aerospace coatings is important for future advancements in application technology, gains in aircraft paint hangar capacity, delivering quality coating finishes, and lowering environmental footprint.

The new combinations such as composites and titanium that are being used on today's new airplanes are proving to be very challenging when drilling holes during manufacturing and assembly operations. Gone are the days of hand drilling with high speed steel drills through soft aluminum structure, after which aluminum rivets would be swaged into those holes with very generous tolerances. The drilling processes today need to use cutter materials hard enough and tough enough to cut through hard metals such as titanium, yet be sharp enough to resistant abrasion and maintain size when drilling through composites. There is a constant search for better cutters and drills that can drill a greater number of holes. The cost of materials used in today's aircraft is much higher. The cutting tools are more expensive and the hole tolerances are much tighter.

The 787 Section 11 Assembly Cell is a combination fixed post and moving frame holding and indexing system, designed to determinately build the 787 Section 11 Wing box. The retractable overhead frame allows maximum clearance for safer and faster loading and unloading of component parts, as well as completed wingbody sections. Additionally, each index is also retractable allowing maximum fastener access inside the jig.

A new Low-Voltage Electromagnetic Riveting (LVER) machine has entered service at the Airbus UK wing factory in Broughton, Wales, in an assembly workcell for A320 family wing panels. The machine is based on existing Electroimpact technology but incorporates numerous design modifications to process tools, fastener feed hardware, machine structure and the control system. In the first months of production these modifications have demonstrated clear improvements in fastener installation cycle times and machine reliability.

Boeing's wholly owned subsidiary in Australia, Hawker de Havilland produces all ailerons for the Boeing 737 family of aircraft. Increasing production rates required to meet market demand drove the requirements for a new updated approach to assembly of these parts. Using lean principals, a pulsed flow line approach was developed. A component of this new line is the integration of a flexible robotic drilling/trimming system. The new robotic system is required to meet aggressive tack time targets with high levels of reliability. The selected system was built on a Kuka KR360-2 conventional articulated arm robot. A significant challenge of this project was the requirement for the process head to work efficiently on an aileron in an existing jig. As a result a new side-mounted drill and trim end effector was developed. Automated tool changers for both cutters and pressure foot assemblies eliminated the requirement for in- process manual intervention.

Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) equipment has been developed capable of laying fiber in excess of 2000 inches per minute on full-size, complex parts. Two such high-speed machines will be installed for production of a nose section for a large twin-aisle commercial aircraft fuselage at Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, Kansas along with a rotator for the fuselage mandrel. The problem of cutting and adding on the fly at these speeds requires thorough re-evaluation of all aspects of the technology, including the mechanical, controls, servos systems, and programming systems. Factors to be considered for high speed cut and add on the fly are discussed.

A large free-standing structure is constructed to positively position the spar and related components in the major assembly jig of the wing for a military transport aircraft. The beam of this structure is mounted on mechanisms enabling the lateral retraction of the beam and tooling to provide full part loading access and extraction of a completed wing. The free-standing nature of this design also allows full integration of an automated drilling machine into the jig.