Type specific tooling is one of the major investments made during the development phase of an aircraft programme. The development phase for civil aircraft typically lasts two to tour years and the tooling cost represents a massive, multi-million pound, forward investment with a long pay back period: -Consequently, reducing the amount of type specific tooling will significantly reduce development costs and the time from concept to market. Additionally, between 10 % and 40 % of the overall cost of a structure can be directly attributed to the cost of type specific tooling: -Hence, any attempt to reduce the cost of structure must eventually focus on reducing the present reliance on type specific hard tooling. This paper describes and demonstrates the use of an assembly centric design algorithm as an aid to achieving minimal hard tooling assembly concepts. The algorithm consists of a number of logically ordered design methodologies and also aids the identification of other enabling technologies. Included in the methodologies is an innovative systems analysis tool that enables the comparison of alternative assembly concepts, and the prediction and control of the total assembly error, at the outline stage of the design. This is partly one of the results of a three-year collaborative research programme, JAM, (Jigless Aerospace Manufacture), between tour industrial companies and four UK universities. The design methodologies are logically ordered to create an algorithm for assembly centric design. The algorithm also aids the identification of other enabling technologies to help achieve minimal hard tooling assembly concepts. Included in the methodologies is an innovative systems analysis tool. This enables the comparison of alternative assembly concepts and the prediction and control of the total assembly error at a very early stage of the design. The solid modeling and detail design of the parts follows later and at the assembly-analysis stage need exist only in outline. Instead, the designer concentrates on the part-to-part interfaces and their dimensional relationships. These are the assembly features that it is essential to control in order to achieve the product key characteristics (PKC). This paper describes the algorithm in detail, explaining the function and purpose of each step, as it demonstrates the use of the algorithm in the re-engineering for minimal tooling of a 2 metre long section of a typical fixed leading edge of a large civil aircraft. Of necessity, the demonstrator structure has been simplified and the depth of the analysis reduced so that it can be explained within the scope of this paper. The designers concentrate on the assembly features that create and control the delivery of the PKCs, with the solid modelling and detail parts design following later when the assembly concept is consisted robust.


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    Title :

    An algorithm for assembly centric design


    Additional title:

    Ein Algorithmus zur Montage zentrierter Strukturen


    Contributors:
    Burley, G. (author) / Corbett, J. (author) / Odi, R. (author) / Naing, S. (author)


    Publication date :

    2002


    Size :

    12 Seiten, 15 Bilder, 2 Tabellen, 13 Quellen




    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English




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