Exploitable results FWA - Flexible workshop for airframe assembly The project is directed towards reducing the high cost of aircraft assembly and increasing reactivity to product types and production volume changes. Current airframe assembly that have long been established is essentially labour intensive and is normally carried out using specially constructed jigs and templates. A move towards a philosophy of minimizing or eliminating product-specific tolling (jigless assembly) and automating the assembly process offers significant commercial benefit. A number of significant results have been achieved regarding the automation of the assembly process and the integration of measurement systems and robotics. Two different alternatives for automated systems were studied depending on the application involved: specialized automatic machines or the use of standard robotic systems. To achieve cost-effective automation, new assembly processes and sequences fully adapted to automation were studied: the step-by-step assembly sequence which was proven to work and the fully one-way assembly that would require further optimization. Robotics capabilities combined with non-contact metrology systems for airframe assembly have been developed. The means for accurately positioning components without the need for jigs and drilling without the need for drill templates has been demonstrated. Regarding jigging concepts, when the project relied on optical metrology systems for component positioning or on part to part positioning, only holding fixtures were necessary. But when positioning kept on being performed by fixtures a review of design principles of jigs towards more flexibility was under concern. An economical analysis was led by end-users on the 4 applications involved according to the project under consideration. Some promising alternatives were identified under certain conditions. Searching for OpenAIRE data... There was an error trying to search data from OpenAIRE No results available
