Blind Fastener Installation with Passive Compliance Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Automated riveting systems for installing blind fasteners are often heavy, cumbersome, and require high precision, which is costly and time-consuming, especially since they need to be dismantled for deburring and cleaning, and single-function systems lack efficiency without high-precision sensors.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising an insertion device, a pulling and extracting device, and a passive compliance device that allows for precise alignment and deformation of the fastening shank without the need for high-precision sensors, enabling quick and effective installation of blind fasteners by using a mandrel that breaks after swaging, allowing for potential energy transformation into kinetic energy for mandrel extraction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multi-function automated riveting systems are used to bore and swage rivets, then the system can perform both boring and swaging operations, but the system becomes heavy and cumbersome
Solution Approach 1:
The system is divided into separate functional modules: a boring device that creates the fastening site, and a swaging device that installs the blind fastener. These modules can be used independently or in sequence, allowing the system to perform multiple functions while keeping each individual component lighter and more manageable.
Solution Approach 2:
The passive compliance device serves multiple functions: it provides mechanical alignment between the fastening site and the blind fastener, compensates for positioning errors, and enables the system to achieve high precision without requiring heavy rigid structures or complex sensor systems.
2Device complexity
If single-function automated systems are used for positioning and swaging, then the system is simpler, but high precision positioning requires costly high-precision sensors and rigid systems
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces expensive electronic sensor systems with a passive mechanical compliance device that provides alignment through its inherent mechanical properties. The compliance device passively adapts to positioning variations and ensures accurate alignment of the blind fastener with the fastening site through mechanical means rather than electronic sensing and correction.
Solution Approach 2:
The passive compliance device acts as an intermediary element between the positioning system and the swaging operation. It absorbs and compensates for positioning errors, allowing the system to achieve high precision (within 0.2-0.5 mm) without requiring equally precise positioning equipment or sensors.
3Manufacturing precision
If high-precision sensors and rigid systems are used to achieve positioning precision within 0.2-0.5 mm, then alignment precision is improved, but the system becomes costly, heavy, and slow to maneuver
Solution Approach 1:
The passive compliance device introduces controlled flexibility and adaptability into the system. Rather than relying on rigid, heavy structures, the compliance device dynamically adjusts to positioning variations, enabling faster maneuvering while maintaining the required alignment precision for blind fastener installation.
4Adaptability or versatility
If multi-function systems are used that bore and swage from the same position, then the system integrates multiple operations, but dismantling is required for deburring and cleaning
Solution Approach 1:
By separating the boring operation from the swaging operation into different functional modules, the system allows each module to be independently accessed, maintained, and serviced. The swaging device can be positioned and operated independently after the boring operation is completed, improving accessibility for maintenance activities.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system achieves precise, quick, and cost-effective installation of blind fasteners without the need for high-precision sensors, resulting in a lightweight and economical solution that reduces the complexity and cost associated with traditional systems.
Implementation Method 1
a passive compliance device that binds the insertion device to the pulling and extracting device, the passive compliance device being configured to allow a passive alignment of the second longitudinal axis with the first longitudinal axis during the installation of the blind fastener in the fastening site
Implementation Method 2
pulling on the jaw in order to pull on the mandrel so as to deform the shaft of the fastening shank, which is held in the fastening site by a bearing wall of the insertion device in order to swage the fastening shank in the fastening site
Implementation Method 3
the mandrel being configured to be detached from the fastening shank by breaking after the swaging of the fastening shank
Data Source
AI summary
A device for inserting the blind fastener in the fastening site, a pulling and extracting device for swaging the blind fastener in the fastening site and a passive compliance device that binds the inserting device to the pulling and extracting device. The passive compliance device allows the installation of the bind fastener without sensors.