Automated assembly in the future
During a period of three years the EU-project ADFAST, Automation for Drilling, Fastening, Assembly, System Integration and Tooling, has been in progress. This is a development project, in part financed by the EU. The project has had ten partners and Saab Aerostructures has been one of them.
- The purpose has been to develop a cost effective technology for the automatic production process, within the assembly said Saab Aerostructures project representative, Magnus Engström, also one of the initiators of ADFAST.
The project was divided into three different work packages. The first one contained among other items, development of orbital drilling by robot and development of a so called “End Effector”. It is located on the “wrist” of the industrial robot and will be used in installing fasteners to the composite structure. The other work package was focused on development of components for automatically reconfigurable jigs, used in cases when the industrial robot transforms the jig configuration.
- Jigs that can be quickly transformed with their unique techniques can be very important in the future. This technique would give Saab significant advantages when competing in the future, said Magnus Engström.
Work package number three developed the integration of a laser track system into an industrial robot control system, to enhance positioning accuracy of the robot. This is necessary in several of the applications during assembly work. The accuracy of the laser track system is very high, and is needed when the robot is used to reset or transform the jig.
The ADFAST project is now completed and one of the results is a physical demonstrator that shows how a reconfigurable, automatic based jig works.
- We are now looking to see how reliable the demonstrator is and what we can do to improve and optimize technical solutions. We will also look for alternatives to the laser tracker system, as this system is rather expensive, said Magnus Engström.
Another important part is the commercialization of the technique that has been developed as well as future developments. There are two national collaboration projects about to start, the objective being integration and co-operation between different systems so that in the future Saab will be able to deliver the complete automatic solution.
Assembly automation is a strategic prerequisite for Saab’s growth in the aircraft structure assembly area, both when it comes to competitiveness and environmental friendly solutions.
Back to CNB 3/2004