Locating method and motion stroke design of flexible assembly tooling for multiple aircraft components

To get an accurate dimensional size/shape/spatial and assembly accuracy, flexible assembly tooling is developed and applied in aviation production, instead of traditional dedicated rigid tooling. Its configuration can be adjusted to fit different assembly environments and support/locate different components together in correct relative positions. For multiple aircraft components, the optimal design on flexible assembly tooling system, i.e., flexible locating method and motion stroke of different locating units, was studied in this paper. Firstly, to assemble the multiple components with a flexible method, the optional geometric features were defined and divided into several groups, with cluster analysis. Secondly, with two-stage progressive reasoning and the polychromatic set theory, the precise logical mapping relationship between product assembly/coordination requirements and detailed tooling locating methods was proposed. Thirdly, considering the constraints of assembly operation space, assembly constraints (such as assembly loads and locating freedom), product posture, and other specific assembly factors, a design procedure with quantitative analysis and containing eleven steps was proposed and modeled, and then solved with intelligent algorithm. Lastly, flexible design for assembling four different wing flap components was optimized to verify the methodology’s feasibility. The flexible assembly system has a compact/simplified structure, and a sufficient assembly operation space. The layout scheme of the comprised units distributes by three rows, and parallel to each other. And the locating function of end locating effectors is highly integrated with a good flexibility degree. Combined with the practical design and assembly process, the motion stroke fits well with flexible assembly requirements, demonstrating a good locating/assembly performance.