Search Results

As carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) become more integrated into the design of large single piece aircraft structures, aircraft manufacturers are demanding higher speed and efficiency in Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) deposition systems. To facilitate the manufacturing of large surface area and low contour parts (wing skins, in this case) at a high production rate, Electroimpact has developed a new AFP head consisting of 20 1.5 inch wide pre-impregnated carbon tows. The new head design has been named the ‘OH20’, short for ‘One and a Half Inch, 20 Tows’. This AFP head format creates a deposition swath over 30 inches wide when all 20 tows are active. A total of four of these AFP heads have been integrated with a quick change robotic tool changer on two high speed, high acceleration, and high accuracy moving beam gantries. All head CFRP spool loading, maintenance, and cleaning can be accomplished in a maintenance cell while the other AFP head is depositing CFRP in the part cell.

In AFP manufacturing systems, manually inspection of parts consumes a large portion of total production time and is susceptible to missing defects. The aerospace industry is responding to this inefficiency by focusing on the development of automated inspection systems. The first generation of automated inspection systems is now entering production. This paper reviews the performance of the first generation system and discusses reasonable expectations. Estimates of automated inspection time will be made, and it will be shown that the automated solution enables a detailed statistical analysis of manufactured part quality and provides the data necessary for statistical process control. Data collection allows for a reduction in rework because not all errors need to be corrected. Expectations will be set for the accuracy for both ply boundary and overlap/gap measurements. The time and resource cost of development and integration will also be discussed.

Electroimpact has designed and manufactured a flexible tooling system for the E7000-ARJ horizontal panel riveter. This tooling design accommodates panel sizes from 3.5m to 10m long, with a variety of straight and tapered curvatures. The tooling is re-configured manually and utilizes removable index plates that can be adapted to accommodate new panel types. This type of tooling is ideal for value-conscious applications where a single machine must process a large range of panel styles. Electroimpact is currently using this system to tool 17 different styles of pre-tacked panels on a single E7000-ARJ machine. This flexible system does not require large removable form boards or custom frames that index one type of panel. Instead it uses 4 form boards that are permanently mounted to the picture frame by linear rails, allowing them to index anywhere along the 10m working envelope.

This paper details the Electroimpact Cartridge Feed Auto Select (CFAS) System, the Electroimpact Cartridge Filling Station (CFS) and the implementation of these systems on today&’s factory floors. Problems inherent in handling tens of thousands of fasteners per workpiece have traditionally been an Achilles Heel to many aerospace-manufacturing cells. The CFAS system moves the job of sorting through bulk fasteners to the stand alone offline CFS. With the bulk feeding process offline, problems such as contaminated fastener lots get taken care of before they ever get to a fastening machine. Modular briefcase sized coiled tube magazines store and distribute fasteners to automated riveting and bolting equipment via the CFAS rack. Cartridges captively hold 500 to 3,000 fasteners from 1/8” to 3/8” diameters and are length independent which allow a small number of cartridges to work with a large array of overall fasteners.