Key technologies for precision management and integrated control in large scale digital Alignment

Alignment is one of the most critical stages during large scale assembly. The accuracy and setup time of the alignment process would significantly determine the quality and the cycle time of the final product. With the rapid development of technologies of large scale digital metrology and flexible tooling, the deployment of measurement assisted assembly technology becomes the new tendency in digital alignment of large scale products, such as aircrafts, aerospace and ships. However, there is still a lack of investigation on that, how to integrate those separate devices or systems (for example measurement devices, servo-controlled fixtures and data management systems) together to take their fully advantages. Nowadays many manufacturers have purchased plenty of advanced devices and systems, but still know little about how to use them effectively to improve assembly precision and product quality. Focusing on the process of large scale digital alignment using digital metrology and flexible fixtures, this paper studies the key technologies for precision management and control based on the integration of different systems. The methodology includes an integrated framework, automatically positioning planning algorithm and process simulation and optimization technology. Additionally, an implementation example is given to verify the feasibility of the proposed methodology. The research will benefit other stages of large scale assembly as well.