Working mode in aircraft manufacturing based on digital coordination model

As a key and core technology in aircraft manufacturing industry, assembly coordination technology is important to improve the competitiveness and manufacturing level. To get accurate dimensional size/shape/spatial position and coordination accuracy, according to characteristics of the working mode based on hard master tooling, working mode based on digital coordination model (DCM) is developed. Firstly, with the idea of digital twin, by analyzing the controlling method for coordination accuracy, a principle of the working mode based on DCM is proposed. The defined DCM is a process model that mirrors a practical assembly site, which consists of coordination element (CE), coordination relationship (CR), and control method for coordination accuracy (CMCA). It can replace hard master tooling as the only basis for the transfer process of dimension/shape/position in aircraft manufacturing. Secondly, the principle and detailed function process based on DCM in the whole aircraft manufacturing stage are presented. It is shown that the foundation of this mode is DCM, the focus of this mode is error transfer process in assembly, the direct analysis basis of this mode is measuring data, the core factor of this mode is dynamic feedback adjustment, and the ultimate goal is to control the consistency of accumulated error between assemblies. In contrast with the working mode based on hard master tooling, under the measuring field and virtual simulation/analysis environment, the function process of this mode is a dynamic closed loop comprising CEs/CRs that can be adjusted continually in real time with CMCA. Lastly, flexible assembling of four wing flap components is verified. Benefit results showed that the propagation of dimension/shape/position for products and flexible tooling can be completed under the working mode based on DCM. Furthermore, assembly accuracy and coordination accuracy can fit design requirements well, and the assembly efficiency with this new working mode is increased about 40%.