Search Results

Up until the last two decades, aluminum in airplanes and steel in automobiles were the primary materials used to produce these two complex machines. These metal-to-metal assemblies, and specifically the same-type metal-to-metal assemblies, have resulted in distinct manufacturing process advantages over decades of production. However, advances in material types have driven manufacturing to adapt and align the fabrication and assembly processes to continue to facilitate a quality product that is reliable, can be manufactured at a price point that is affordable and be manufactured in quantities that can be widely distributed. Dissimilar metal and composite material assemblies are now requiring highly complex manufacturing processes. Innovations in Automotive and Aerospace Assembly addresses how these new, disruptive materials usage are changing the manufacturing and production processes for the transportation industries.

Fusing aluminum in a multi-material lightweight vehicle is presented via studies on joining dissimilar materials, joining methods, and the performance of the joined materials. The use of aluminum offers a material that embodies properties to meet new standards as the automotive industry continues to pursue improvements in fuel efficiency and emissions. Aluminum’s strength, light weight, and corrosion resistance offers manufacturers a material alternative to steel and an additional material, which has long been known in the industry, to be employed in automotive construction. Topics of technical interest include: • Forming • Galvanic Corrosion • Welding, Fastening, Bonding • Maximizing Weight Benefits Production of strong, lightweight structures will contribute significantly to automobile manufacturers meeting mandated fuel economy standards, as well as customer preferences for utility, comfort, and safety.

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.

Modern aircraft manufacturing involves drilling and countersinking hundreds of thousands to millions of holes. Doing this work by hand accounts for 65% of the cost of airframe assembly, 85% of the quality issues, and 80% of the lost time due to injuries. Automated drilling and countersinking replaces traditional hand methods and involves using numeric control machinery to drill and countersink a finished hole “one shot” (drilling a finished hole without using pilot holes or tool changes). This is a proven cost reducing technology that improves quality where it has been applied successfully. The focus of this book is on automating the process of drilling and countersinking holes during airframe manufacturing.