3/14/2016 11:42:00 AM
HEADLINES
Quadbot Integral to Boeing Dreamliner Assembly
Courtesy Charleston Regional Business Journal
MEDIA SPOTLIGHT – Boeing’s Dreamliner facility in South Carolina is preparing for a rate increase — from 10 planes a month to 12 — based on piloting technologies that use robots to bolt the composite sections together, the Charleston Regional Business Journal reports.
“The North Charleston facility recently delivered its 100th S.C.-built Dreamliner to American Airlines — about four years after the first S.C.-built Dreamliner rolled out of final assembly,” writes Liz Segrist of the Journal.
The “next 100 airplanes will happen in about half the time,” facility GM Beverly Wyse told the Journal.
Boeing’s aft-body facility is responsible for drilling and bolting the three main sections that create the rear part of the fuselage for all Dreamliners.
“Inside the aft-body facility, four robotic arms swivel to drill holes and place 2,800 fasteners on a rear section of the Dreamliner. The new Electroimpact Quadbot completes the work in 3 1/2 days — down from five days on the previous machine — and it installs 900 more fasteners,” Segrist writes.
Four robotic arms run at all times, with a fifth sitting as a spare in case one goes down for maintenance. The robot’s drilling and fastening speed “decreases work for mechanics down the line and supports faster production rates.”
Workers in the aft-body building are also testing an automated, five-axis drill machine to tool all the holes between the aft-body sections, similar to the three-axis drill machines used in midbody and final assembly, according to the Journal.
“We are always looking for ways to be more efficient and lean,” Wyse said.
Editor’s Note: Articles in MEDIA SPOTLIGHT are excerpts from publications or broadcasts which show the industry what the public is reading or hearing about fasteners and fastener companies.
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