Flexible automated aircraft production The aerospace industry produces relatively few components compared to the automotive industry, and product lifetimes are quite long. Flexible automated production units should have major impact on industry competitiveness. Industrial Technologies © Thinkstock In the EU, there is great pressure to reduce manufacturing costs while enhancing quality and performance in order to meet certification while remaining globally competitive. Meeting these objectives is particularly challenging in the aerospace industry where products typically are low-volume and have long service lives. Hence, flexible production units are required that can be adapted to different components. Automation technology is quite mature in the automotive industry. EU-funded scientists worked on extending it to the aeronautical sector within the project 'Advanced flexible automation cell' (FLEXA). Work encompassed the development of virtual manufacturing to support creation and operation of the flexible automation cells, thus providing a safe generic process chain. Quality assurance systems ensure conformation to aerospace regulations. A web-based data flow system provides a virtual and distributed working environment with integrated data flow into and out of the cell. Two demonstrator cells successfully validated the concepts for implementation. One was for grinding, deburring and measuring operations, and the other for welding and non-destructive testing. The virtual manufacturing platform supports offline modelling of a generic automation cell as well as automatic generation of cell control programmes via a programmable logic controller. It also contains code for geometrical tolerance dependency in quality assurance. Recognising the importance of human–machine interactions in manufacturing, FLEXA developed strategies and tools for restarting a manufacturing process (using augmented reality). Each operator is equipped with a touch screen monitor and webcam. Methods support evaluation, early assessment and decision making during failures, reducing lead time and scrap. FLEXA's virtual manufacturing platform and flexible automation cells for production in the aerospace industry will increase production rates with the same process equipment while reducing scrap. Technology promises to reduce aircraft development costs and time-to-market by 50 % for a major boost to EU manufacturing competitiveness.
