Building Aircraft Assembly Tools From A 3-D Database 881428
Recent advances in the field of 3D measurement manufacturing and modelling systems have enabled new and advanced methods of aircraft assembly tools to be produced. By creating an electronic data model of the assembly and using the data base contained therein, it is possible to produce assembly tools without any physical masters.
The assembly tool is designed in 3D using the data set within the electronic model. Once designed, the components are NC/conventionally machined and inspected on Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMM) utilizing the dataset that is downloaded from the mainframe.
Once built, the tool is verified by either the theodolite, the CMM or photogrammetry. These methods enable tools to be built that accurately represent engineering models as tolerance accumulation and errors inherent in physically mastered tools are no longer a factor. The benefits attributed to this process are significant in terms of lead time, labor and quality.
