Skin-to-Frame Robotic Bonding Without Assembly Fixtures
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Solution Overview
Problem
The automobile and aircraft manufacturing industries face significant challenges in assembling components due to the high cost and inflexibility of fixtures, leading to inefficient and time-consuming manual assembly processes, limited design flexibility, and increased capital investment, resulting in a lack of vehicle design diversity.
Innovation Solution
The use of robotic systems to assemble components without fixtures, employing radiation-curable adhesives and robotic control to join structures such as skins and frames, allowing for precise, reproducible, and economical assembly of vehicle parts like fuselages, wings, and chassis.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If fixtures are used for robotic assembly, then assembly precision and automation are improved, but manufacturing cost and device complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes fixtures entirely from the robotic assembly system, extracting the constraint mechanism and replacing it with direct robotic manipulation and adhesive bonding. This eliminates the need for complex fixture designs while maintaining assembly precision through robotic control systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical fixture system with a combination of robotic positioning and chemical bonding (adhesive). Instead of using mechanical constraints to hold parts during assembly, the system uses adhesives to join parts directly, substituting mechanical fixation with chemical bonding facilitated by robotic precision.
2Manufacturing precision
If fixtures are used for robotic assembly, then assembly precision is improved, but manufacturing cost increases due to expensive fixture acquisition and maintenance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces expensive, durable fixtures with inexpensive, consumable adhesives. Instead of investing in costly fixture equipment that requires maintenance and replacement, the system uses low-cost adhesive materials that are applied consumably during each assembly operation, dramatically reducing manufacturing costs while maintaining precision through robotic control.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent substitutes the mechanical fixture system with adhesive bonding, replacing high-capital equipment with low-cost chemical materials. This substitution eliminates the need for expensive fixture acquisition, installation, and maintenance while achieving equivalent or superior assembly precision through robotic positioning accuracy.
3Productivity
If fixtures are used for robotic assembly, then assembly speed is improved, but adaptability decreases when design changes are required
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a dynamic assembly system where robotic programs can be easily modified to accommodate design changes. Instead of physically reconfiguring fixtures, the system dynamically adapts by updating robotic motion paths, adhesive application patterns, and curing parameters through software programming, enabling rapid response to design variations while maintaining high assembly speed.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent enables design adaptability through parameter changes in the robotic control system. When design modifications are needed, the system adjusts programming parameters such as robotic trajectory, adhesive dispensing rates, UV curing intensity, and bonding timing, allowing flexible adaptation to new designs without physical system changes, thereby maintaining productivity while enhancing versatility.
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
Enables efficient, cost-effective, and timely assembly of vehicle components without the need for expensive fixtures, facilitating design flexibility and reducing production time, while maintaining structural integrity and accuracy.
Implementation Method 1
employing radiation-curable adhesives and robotic control to join structures such as skins and frames
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus includes a skin connected to a structure. A window in the skin or structure allows radiation to cure an adhesive between the skin and structure to fix the skin to the structure. A structural connection is provided between the skin and structure and may include a structural adhesive. A protrusion may be on either the skin or the structure and contacts an adhesive within a feature of the skin or the structure to fix the skin and the structure. A method of forming the apparatus includes a robotic system including one or more robots joining the skin and structure. The one or more robots move the skin and/or the structure within a joining proximity of one another, apply a radiation to cure an adhesive between the skin and structure and form a structural connection between the skin and the structure.