A novel jigless process applied to a robotic cell for aircraft structural assembly

Resumo

© 2020, Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature.The aerospace industry is searching to enhance product quality and performance with lower process cost and investments. One way to achieve that is to maximize automation with less operational resources and machine downtime toward to a friendly product and process assembly. Conventional jigs have rigid frame as main structure and workpieces are loaded by accurate holders, rendering it static. Within this domain, this paper identifies and compares state of art jigs used on automated cells with those of novel jig that meets the operational needs of ordinary aircraft assembly in a disruptive way. This paper details the novel jig as well as the manufacturing benefits using the jigless assembly concept in a drilling robotic working cell. The gains yielded such as infrastructure required, solution cost, performance, and product accessibility are qualitatively demonstrated herein. Additionally, the jigless assembly concept connects the manufacturing demand with the product development environment, based upon Lean manufacturing concepts.

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