Flight International - November 10, 2015

THIS WEEK

ightglobal.com 10-16 November 2015 | Flight International | 11

Il-96 to form basis

of joint widebody

AIR TRANSPORT P

Stephen Trimble/Flightglobal

B

ombardier on 3 November
briefly opened the Global
7000 assembly line to journalists,
showcasing a revitalised facility
with “game-changing” manufac-
turing technology for the business
aviation market.
Bombardier hired aviation au-
tomation specialist Electroimpact
for a modern manufacturing
make-over of Bay 10 of its Toronto
factory, home of the Global 7000
and 8000. The facility now fea-
tures a five-position assembly line
for pulsed moves and emphasis-
ing technology to eliminate some
variables involved in the process.

The $71 million twinjet is built at the airframer’s Toronto facility

The technology starts at the first

assembly position, where two

wings are joined to the centre

wing-box. An automated position-

ing system uses laser tracker feed-

back that computes the location of

the contours of each assembly, al-

lowing a human operator to move

sections into position with greater

accuracy. Electroimpact automat-

ed the movement of completed

assemblies from one position to

another. Instead of lifting struc-

tures by crane, a robotic train – the

Aircraft Transportation Linear

Activation System (ATLAS) – car-

ries the completed wing assembly

rivet and fasten the metallic sec-

tions together.

Bombardier plans to use robots

to drill and deburr wing-to-fuse-

lage mate assembly and rivet and

fasten major fuselage sections.

That requires a complementary

robotic “bucking” system, with a

robot on the aircraft interior to

apply back pressure as the exter-

nal robot sinks fasteners. ■

See Feature P

AIRCRAFT STEPHEN TRIMBLE TORONTO

Globals buck the

trend with robotics

“Game changing” manufacturing technology installed on
Bombardier’s production line for latest ultra-long-range aircraft

into the second position.

The wings are mated to the cen-

tre fuselage, followed by joining

the forward and aft sections to the

centre.

Electroimpact is automating

this step with robotic systems

found in the high-volume produc-

tion systems of commercial airlin-

ers. Two robots are used to cir-

cumferentially drill and deburr

the thousands of holes required to

AMAC Aerospace Switzerland AG

Henric Petri -Strasse 35

4051 Basel, Switzerland

Telephone + 4 1 58 310 31 31

[email protected]

http://www.amacaerospace.com

Corporate and private aircraft maintenance, refurbishment

and completion services.

Located at Basel EuroAirport in Switzerland.

Swiss Excellence

in Business Aviation

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