ROBUST ASSEMBLY - QUALITY ASSURED WELDING TECHNOLOGIES FOR FULL-SCALE APPLICATIONS

Abstract

Thermoplastic welding technologies offer the possibility of producing an integral assembly out of two or more separate components, with an interface that is non-distinguishable to the component structure itself. However, institutional research on thermoplastic welding technologies is mostly focusing the technology readiness levels (TRL) one to three, demonstrating the validity of the functional principle in a reduced scale. Within the European Clean Sky 2 (CS 2) initiative, the Multifunctional Fuselage Demonstrator (MFFD) an eight-meter long, cylindrical aircraft fuselage barrel will be manufactured challenging different thermoplastic part manufacturing and welding technologies in full scale. Within this paper we are focusing to present the custom-made welding jigs and end-effectors for ultrasonic and resistance welding, developed for the MFFD upper shell assembly. To assure adequate integrated quality assurance the weld tools are equipped with various sensors for component positioning and process control. The accumulated data are validated and inline stored within a storage for heterogenous product and research data (shepard) to assure the robust process execution and safeguard traceability.