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The foundation of many production aircraft assembly facilities is a more dynamic and unpredictable quantity than we would sometimes care to admit. Any tooling structures constructed on these floors, no matter how thoroughly analyzed or well understood, are at the mercy of settling and shifting concrete, which can cause very lengthy and costly periodic re-certification and adjustment procedures. It is with this in mind, then, that we explore the design possibilities for one such structure to be built in Belfast, North Ireland for the assembly of the Shorts C-Series aircraft wings. We evaluate the peak floor pressure, weight, gravity deflection, drilling deflection, and thermal deflection of four promising structures and discover that carefully designed pivot points and tension members can offer significant benefits in some areas.

Manufacturing C cross-sectional components with high aspect ratios out of carbon fiber reinforced composites is desirable by the aircraft industry. Modular AFP heads with short, fixed tow path have the fundamental performance characteristics required to successfully and productively automate the production of these part families. Aircraft parts in this family include wing spars, stringers, and fuselage frames.

Wing and fuselage aircraft structures require large precise tools for assembly. These large jigs require periodic re-certification to validate jig accuracy, yet metrology tasks involved may take the tool out of service for a week or more and typically require highly specialized personnel. Increasing the time between re-certifications adds the risk of making out-of-tolerance assemblies. How can we reduce jig re-certification down time without increasing the risk of using out-of-tolerance tooling? An alternative, successfully tested in a prototype tool, is to bring automated metrology tools to bear. Specifically, laser tracker measurements can be automated through a combination of off-the-shelf & custom software, careful line-of-sight planning, and permanent embedded targets. Retro-reflectors are placed at critical points throughout the jig. Inaccessible (out of reach) tool areas are addressed through the use of low cost, permanent, shielded repeatability targets.

Design and production of an assembly system for a major aircraft component is a complex undertaking, which demands a large-scale system view. Electroimpact has completed a turnkey assembly line for producing the wing, flap, and aileron structures for the COMAC C919 aircraft in Xi’an, China. The project scope includes assembly process design, material handling design, equipment design, manufacture, installation, and first article production support. Inputs to the assembly line are individual component parts and small subassemblies. The assembly line output is a structurally completed set of wing box, flaps, and ailerons, for delivery to the Final Assembly Line in Shanghai. There is a trend toward defining an assembly line procurement contract by production capacity, versus a list of components, which implies that an equipment supplier must become an owner of production processes.

Boeing has relied upon the 767 ASAT (ASAT1) since 1983 to fasten the chords, stiffeners and rib posts to the web of the four 767 wing spars. The machine was originally commissioned with a Terra five axis CNC control. The Terra company went out of business and the controls were replaced with a custom DOS application in 1990. These are now hard to support so Boeing solicited proposals. Electroimpact proposed to retrofit with a Fanuc 31I CNC, and in addition, to replace all associated sensors, cables and feedback systems. This work is now complete on two of the four machines. Both left front and right front are in production with the new CNC control.

Electroimpact has designed the E6000, the next generation riveting machine, with a focus on reduced weight and speed. It will initially be used on ARJ21 wing panels in Xi'an, China, but it is able to fasten a variety of panels including A320 and 737. The E6000's fastening cycle is capable of forming and shaving 16 rivets per minute. Head alignment is maintained by two independent four axis heads using a combination of controls and kinematics. Process tool speed has been improved via high lead screws, high speed Fanuc motors, and a shorter head stone drop. An innovative EI operator interface enhances end user experience.

Electroimpact revisited a piece of automation history this year. In 1989, Electroimpact delivered its first ever Automated Electromagnetic Riveting and Assembly Cell or A.E.R.A.C. to Textron Aero Structures, now Vought Aircraft Industries. These machines produce upper wing panels for Airbus A330/340 aircraft. They were the precursor to the Low Voltage Electromagnetic Riveters or LVER's producing wing panels for Airbus single isle, A340 and A380 programs in Broughton, Wales, UK. In 2009, Electroimpact delivered two next generation AERAC machines to Vought Aircraft Industries. A significant design challenge was to hold the moving mass for the entire machine under 5220 kg without sacrificing performance of the LVER. These machines employ several new technologies to achieve this including Electroimpact's latest generation rivet injector, an integrated headstone load cell, and GE Fanuc's customer board.

Airbus UK was interested in a high-speed riveting machine cell that could automatically rivet over 30 different wing panels for a wide range of aircraft to fit in a limited floor space. Electroimpact was approached and proposed a Flexible, High Speed, Riveting Machine (HSRM). The resulting flexible riveting cell is 170 feet long and contains two flexible fixtures located end to end. Two fixtures allow manual work on one fixture while the machine is riveting on the second fixture. Each fixture can be quickly reconfigured to accommodate a broad range of Airbus panels. The system went into production on January 12, 2003 and has been extremely effective, riveting the first wing panel, a lower panel 1 for the A330-300 in only 5 days. This was one of the largest panels the cell was sized to accommodate. Anticipated process improvements will reduce the riveting time to just three days per panel.

The ONCE robotic drilling system utilizes a mass produced, high capacity industrial robot as the motion platform for an automated drilling, countersinking, and hole inspection machine for the skin to substructure join on the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet wing trailing edge flaps (TEF). Historically, robots have lacked the accuracy, payload capacity, and stiffness required for aerospace drilling applications. Recent improvements in positional accuracy and payload capacity, along with position and stiffness compensation, have enabled the robot to become an effective motion platform. Coupled with a servo-controlled multifunction end effector (MFEE), hole locations have successfully been placed within the specification's +/-0.060″ tolerance. The hole diameters and countersinks have proven to be very accurate, with countersink depth variation at 0.0025″ worst case.

The Electromagnetic Bolt Inserter (EMB) is a new tool that combines functions that on previous machines were performed by two tools, a bolt inserter followed by an EMR. By combining the operations of two tools in one the processing time for the wing spar is reduced. The tool incorporates quality checks for bolt length, stake height and bolt insert height.

As part of a Composite Wing Manufacture Program, Electroimpact was asked to design and develop a small portable milling machine for machining CFRP. The machine needed to be light so it could be lifted by two operators, robust to the production environment, and stiff enough to allow it to cut a 15 mm deep 3/8\mi slot through composite material (CFRP), in one pass, with no delamination. The machine also needed to be capable of performing a 30 mm deep finishing cut, in one pass, with 3 μm or better surface finish. Specialist Polycrystalline Diamond (PDC) roughing cutters were developed for the cutting process to reduce cutting loads and vibration while maximizing cutter life. The machine also needed to be capable of cutting along a 2 axis path. Electroimpact successfully introduced the machine in to the production environment in October 2011, within a 12 month development window.

Electroimpact's E4000 LVER riveting machine entered service in 1998 assembling A320/A321 upper wing panels at the Airbus wing manufacturing facility in Broughton, Wales. Airbus's recent introduction of the Sharklet modification to the wings of the A320 family of aircraft necessitated a number of changes to the machine and fixture to accommodate the revised wing geometry. Electroimpact and Airbus also worked together to identify a wide range of machine improvements and updates. A short list of the changes made to the machine includes a new CNC, new motors, scales, spindles, and new technologies such as laser tracers and normality sensors. The end result is a faster, more accurate machine with state-of-the-art controls ready to support Airbus's A320/321 wing panel assembly for the next 15 years.

The decision to replace a successful automated production system at the heart of a high volume aircraft factory does not come easily. A point is reached when upgrades and retrofits are insufficient to meet increasing capacity demands and additional floor space is simply unavailable. The goals of this project were to increase production volume, reduce floor space usage, improve the build process, and smooth factory flow without disrupting today’s manufacturing. Two decades of lessons learned were leveraged along with advancements in the aircraft assembly industry, modern machine control technologies, and maturing safety standards to justify the risk and expense of a ground-up redesign. This paper will describe how an automated wing spar fastening system that has performed well for 20 years is analyzed and ultimately replaced without disturbing the high manufacturing rate of a single aisle commercial aircraft program.

A simple, open, post and index system is used for final alignment and joining of the fuselage and wings of a new passenger business jet. 19 manually actuated axes precisely move the wings, forward, and rear fuselage sections into position. Movement is accomplished with industrial jacking screws and positions recorded with precision linear potentiometers. Wing sweep, angle of attack, and dihedral are monitored and controlled. The axes positions are downloaded to data files for verification and data archiving. The Gulfstream G150 Join Cell's open architecture enhances access to fasten the main aircraft structure while maintaining flight critical geometry.

Electroimpact has developed a novel method for accurately drilling and countersinking holes on highly convex parts using an articulated arm robotic drilling system. Highly curved parts, such as the leading edge of an aircraft wing, present numerous challenges when attempting to drill normal to the part surface and produce tight tolerance countersinks. Electroipmact's Accurate Robot technology allows extremely accurate positioning of the tool point and the spindle vector orientation. However, due to the high local curvature of the part, even a small positional deviation of the tool point can result in a significantly different normal vector than expected from an NC program. An off-normal hole will result in an out of tolerance countersink and a non-flush fastener.