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British Aerospace needed an automated wing riveting system for fastening the A320 wing sections. The E4000 Wing Riveting System was designed and installed at their Airbus factory in Chester, UK and is now in production. It uses a five axis solid yoke with workheads on each end of the yoke. It accurately installs both rivets and lockbolts over the entire wing panel, including offset areas.

The Airbus A340-600 wing panel manufacturing system, which entered production in 1999, represents a major milestone for automated aircraft assembly. The new A340-600 system builds upon the success of the E4000 based A320 wing panel assembly system, which was introduced into production three years ago. The new A340-600 system consists of two 440 ft. assembly lines. One produces upper wing skin panels and the second produces lower skin panels. Each line consists of three fully automated CNC controlled flexible fixtures placed end to end serviced by two E4100 CNC assemble machines. Each fixture accepts multiple wing panels and can be automatically changed between the different configurations. Stringers are located and held using clamps mounted to “popping posts”. These posts automatically drop out of the machine path into the floor to provide clearance for complete stringer to skin fastening.

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.