Reconfigurable aircraft assembly : using industrial robots and new tooling to meet future production scenarios

• This paper presents the development of a new concept for aircraft airframe assembly tooling. While conventional aircraft assembly tooling relics on rigid steel frames this novel approach can be re-con figured for different products by the help of an accurate laser tracker guided industrial robot. Through this, aircraft manufacturers can better cope with an increased number of variants and smaller volumes which will increase the already high tooling costs. So far in the project a tooling concept has been conceptually designed and economically evaluated. The early technical results of the concepntal work indicate that the concept will work provided that enough mechanical stiffness can be obtained. The economical analysis shows that despite a much higher investment cost, a reconfigurable tool can be economical if it will replace 4-5 conventional tools. In certain future production scenarios reconfigurable tooling can play a very important role to keep the tooling costs down.

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