The Boeing Company

Antonio C Micale

Edward John Batt

David E Strand

Eric M Reid

Matthew R Desjardien

Darrell Darwin Jones

Daniel R Smith

Clayton Lynn Munk

James Niemann Buttrick

Farahnaz Sisco

Donald A Mottaz

Jayson J Aquino

Chris G Couevas

Azita N Namdaran

Noman S Noor

Farahnaz Tanni Sisco

Mario Ramos

A method for assembly manufacturing including positioning a workpiece in an assembly position within an operational cell, positioning a fastening machine relative to the workpiece, wherein the fastening machine includes a robot frame comprising a throat, an assembly end effector coupled to the frame about the throat, and a plurality of linear actuators coupled to the frame, moving, by the plurality of linear actuators, the fastening machine about at least one of six degrees of freedom to receive at least a portion of the workpiece within the throat and position the assembly end effector relative to the workpiece, and performing, by the fastening machine, a fastening operation on the workpiece.

System and method for assembly manufacturing

A system and method are provided to automate the assembly of a wing panel, such as utilized by commercial aircraft. In the context of a system, a tacking cell is provided that is configured to tack one or more stringers to a skin plank. The system also includes a riveting cell configured to receive a tacked plank from the tacking cell and to rivet the one or more stringers to the skin plank. The system also includes a splicing cell configured to receive a plurality of riveted planks from the riveting cell and to attach one or more splice stringers to the plurality of riveted planks. Further, the system includes a side of body cell configured to receive a spliced panel from the splicing cell and to attach a side of body chord thereto to produce a wing panel.

System and method for manufacturing a wing panel

A method for assembly manufacturing may include the steps of: (1) positioning, by a material-handling system, an unassembled workpiece in a first assembly position within a tacking cell, (2) performing, by a first plurality of fastening machines, a tack fastening operation on the unassembled workpiece to form a partially assembled workpiece, (3) transferring, by the material-handling system, the partially assembled workpiece from the tacking cell to a fastening cell, (4) positioning, by the material-handling system, the partially assembled workpiece in a second assembly position within the fastening cell, and (5) performing, by a second plurality of fastening machines, a final fastening operation on the partially assembled workpiece to form an assembled workpiece.

A system for assembly manufacturing may include at least one tacking cell configured to perform at least one tack fastening operation on a workpiece, at least one fastening cell configured to perform at least one final fastening operation on the workpiece and a material-handling system linking the tacking cell and the fastening cell, wherein the material-handling system positions the workpiece within the tacking cell and wherein the material-handling system transfers the workpiece from the tacking cell to the fastening cell.

An airplane fuselage panel including a sheet having peripheral edges routed on routing surfaces, while the sheet is held immobile on a fixture, using a routing end effector carried by a precision computer controlled robot that is directed to the routing surfaces using a digital dataset taken directly from digital engineering part definition records. The sheet has coordination holes drilled while on the fixture using a drilling end effector carried by the precision computer controlled robot that is directed to drilling locations using the digital dataset taken directly from the digital engineering part definition records to accurately locate the hole locations relative to the peripheral edges. The airplane fuselage panel also includes parts, including stringers, stringer clips and shear ties, each having coordination holes drilled by computer controlled drills at locations that will match with corresponding coordination holes in the sheet, so that the parts will be accurately located in positions called for in the digital engineering part definition records when the coordination holes in the parts and the coordination holes in the sheet are aligned and the parts are riveted to the sheet in the accurately located positions.

Airplane fuselage panel

An airplane fuselage including a plurality of individual subassemblies having components that are aligned using coordination holes. The components include an assembly of panels, a plurality of stringer clips, a plurality of frame members, shear ties, and a floor grid made of a plurality of crossmembers. The coordination holes are drilled in selected components and are located at positions on the subassemblies to accurately align the subassemblies relative to each other so the spatial relationship between key features of the subassemblies make them self-locating and intrinsically determinant of the final contour and configuration of the airplane fuselage, independent of hard tooling.

Airplane fuselage

A method of making a large airplane structure from a plurality of subassemblies. The method comprises drilling coordination holes in selected components which are made for accurate assembly of the subassemblies, and that will be located on the subassemblies in a position to be used to accurately position the subassemblies relative to each other so the spatial relationships between key features of the subassemblies as defined by the coordination holes make the subassemblies self-locating and intrinsically determinate of the final contour and configuration of the large airplane structure, independent of tooling. The drilling of coordination holes in the selected components is done using an end effector carried by a precision computer controlled robot that is directed to the drilling locations using a digital dataset taken directly from original digital part definition records.

Method of making large airplane structures

A system for assembling parts on a sheet to form a panel includes a fixture for holding the sheet and presenting the sheet broadside to a robot. A rack within the reach of the robot holds a plurality of end effectors, each having an interconnect which can be gripped and centered by the robot when it picks up by the end effector. The end effectors include, 1) a drilling end effector having a drill for drilling holes in the sheet on centers determined by movement of the robot; 2) a routing end effector having a router for routing peripheral edge portions of the sheet along lines determined by movement of the router; 3) a probe end effector having a probe for sensing contact with surfaces on an index device mounted on the fixture at a known location to serve as a reference monument. A part program constituting a data set having complete panel assembly detail design information obtained directly from original digital engineering part definition records, including locations on the sheet of all fastener holes for fastening the parts needed to make up the panel, and the position on the sheet of the peripheral edge portions thereof relative to the holes, the part program also including machine instructions for directing the movement of the robot to carry the end effectors to the locations on the sheet at which machining operations are needed to fasten the parts in the correct locations and to produce peripheral routed edge portions of the correct configuration. A control computer controls the motion of the robot in accordance with the instructions contained in the part program and automatically performs absolute coordination probing to verify the accuracy of the robot and fixture positioning.

System for making a panel

A method and apparatus for manufacturing panels and major airplane fuselage sections, including a reconfigurable fixture that holds panels for routing and drilling by accurate numerically controlled machine tools using original numerical part definition records, utilizing spatial relationships between key features of detail parts or subassemblies as represented by coordination holes drilled into the parts and subassemblies and making the parts and subassemblies intrinsically determinate of the dimensions and contour of the assembly.

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Seattle, WA, United States of America

Antonio C Micale