Aerospace Automation
Among nontraditional robotic automation, there is increased demand in aerospace manufacturing for mobile robotics, Masinick said. “Instead of stationary robots or robots on linear tracks, aerospace manufacturers are looking to move the robot to the work, rather than move the work past the robot,” he said. “This provides great flexibility in their product mix and elimi- nates ‘monuments’ attached to the floor that impede material flow through the facility.” For mobile robotics, Kuka offers its omni-directional vehicle (omniMove) to transport robots to work areas both through manual operator input as well as through guidance and factory navigation technologies.
Building on Automotive Automation
When the Great Recession hit automotive manufactur- ers hard, many supplier companies like Fori Automation Inc. (Shelby Township, MI) turned to aerospace manufacturing for new opportunities. Building on technologies long used in auto- motive, developers like Fori Automation began devising ways
to apply that expertise to the aerospace world. Founded in 1984, Fori currently is in the process of validation and buying off of two AGVs with a capacity of 95,000 lb (42,750 kg) that will pick up a commercial aircraft wing with tooling, then drive it in and out of an autoclave, said Paul Meloche, Fori Automa- tion vice president, sales.
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The wing AGV system offers a highly flexible, reprogram- mable alternative to using cranes for moving very heavy, large aircraft parts. “This is a niche product that we’ve come up with which is a derivative of automotive technology we’ve used over the years for picking up and transferring parts throughout the automotive plants, most specifically a process in automotive called chassis marriage,” said Meloche. “We have a lot of pat- ented technology that we use within our global customer base.” These AGVs are equipped with servo-driven lifts and drive/ steers that can accurately and repeatedly position the AGV when decking the front and rear suspension, chassis and en- gine into an automotive vehicle, he said, then securing it either manually or automatically using robots. When the company looked to transfer its technology from automotive about five years ago, Fori initially targeted aero- space with the AGVs, Meloche said. “We modified the capacities and capabilities of what we were currently building for automotive and brought it to market probably four or five years ago and it just took off. We were in a unique position because we’re a very technology-driven company, so we have many patents for propulsion and lifting, and vision systems for part ID and measurement.” The first AGV that Fori Automation delivered for aerospace was its Tooling Fixture Delivery system used by Lock- heed Martin (Bethesda, MD) for moving the center J470 Center Wing Assembly. Aerospace manufacturers need more efficient ways to move airframes in the plants to achieve throughput, Meloche noted. “In the case of Lockheed Martin, there’s 16 different cells where they’re doing drilling on the center section of the F-35 where the motor is mounted,” he said. “Typically in the past, they
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ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com | March 2014
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