HBM makes fuselage assembly safer for modern commercial aircraft

The construction of modern commercial aircraft today increasingly involves the use of innovative composite materials such as GRP or GLARE (glass-fiber reinforced aluminum). The handling of these materials during assembly sets new challenges for the aircraft manufacturer.

HBM therefore supports such new automated assembly concepts with innovative solutions for process monitoring in order to optimize process safety during production and also optimize manufacturing costs and runtimes.

In order to check the forces on the fuselage sections during the assembly process, three-component force sensors were specially developed by HBM. Their signals are acquired by HBM digiCLIP measuring amplifiers and forwarded to the plant control system.

The digital measuring amplifiers are characterized by their noise-free and stable measurement technology for reliable measurement results in an industrial environment. The amplifiers are integrated in the automation architecture via the Profibus DP interface.

The modules have an internal digital signal processor for calculating process-relevant characteristic quantities of the assembly process, such as instantaneous values, peak values of the press forces, and limit value violations. Due to the size and complexity of the assembly line, the large number of measurement channels can be easily set up by mounting on DIN rails and daisy-chain wiring.

The combination of multi-component TEDS sensors and the modular measuring amplifier system digiCLIP means that HBM offers a complete measurement technology solution.

This solution sets new yardsticks in terms of economic efficiency and effectiveness, both during installation and on-going operation, so that the new materials, despite their increased complexity, can be cost-optimized and safely used during serial production.