Aircraft Radome Skin Mosaic Assembly for Automated Manufacturing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing aircraft radomes require manual assembly and result in significant material waste due to large petal-like skins, limiting automation and efficiency.
Innovation Solution
The radome is manufactured using smaller skin pieces with partial overlaps, allowing automated assembly and reduced material waste, while maintaining electromagnetic transparency and structural rigidity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If large petal-like skins are used for radome construction, then the structural coverage is improved, but the material waste increases and automation becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The radome skin is divided into multiple smaller skin pieces instead of using large petal-like skins. These smaller pieces are assembled in a mosaic pattern to form the complete radome skin, reducing material waste while enabling automated assembly processes.
Solution Approach 2:
The skin pieces are arranged in a two-dimensional mosaic pattern with overlapping edges, transitioning from traditional large-scale three-dimensional petal assembly to a planar tiling approach. This dimensional shift enables better material utilization and automated positioning.
2Strength
If manual assembly of large skin petals is used, then the structural integrity is maintained, but the productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The radome construction is segmented into multiple smaller skin pieces that can be individually handled and assembled by automated robots, significantly increasing manufacturing productivity while maintaining overall structural integrity through the mosaic assembly pattern.
Solution Approach 2:
Manual mechanical assembly of large skin petals is replaced with automated robotic assembly of smaller skin pieces. The automated system uses precise positioning and overlapping joints to achieve the same structural integrity that previously required manual craftsmanship.
3Ease of manufacture
If smaller skin pieces are used for automated assembly, then the ease of manufacture is improved, but the number of assembly joints increases
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple smaller skin pieces are merged into a unified mosaic pattern where overlapping edges are joined together. This merging approach increases the number of joints but simplifies manufacturing by enabling automated assembly, as each individual piece remains small and manageable for robotic positioning.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of assembling an aircraft radome and a radome comprising at least a first skin and a second skin arranged on two opposite faces of the same shell, the first skin and the second skin being formed from a first assembly of skin pieces and from a second assembly of skin pieces, respectively, the assemblies being such that all or some of the skin pieces of the first and second assemblies partially overlap one or more neighboring skin pieces of the assembly that includes them, and such that the ratio between the surface area of a piece of skin overlapping one or more neighboring pieces of skin and the total surface area of that piece of skin does not exceed a predetermined threshold value.