Industrial Automated Laser Tracker Application

Abstract

Large-volume metrology (LVM) provides the ability to reduce or remove jigs and fixtures throughout aerospace and automotive applications using universal grippers and robots. The drawback of integrating LVM for measurement-assisted part assembly (automotive) or stringer integration (aerospace) is the dependence on measurement systems, which have been developed to be portable and are mainly used manually. The benefits and requirements of applying laser tracker-assisted assembly processes lead to future assembly concepts. Our company, FFT Produktionssysteme of Fulda, Germany, provides turnkey solutions for building automobiles and aircraft, and develops technology to assist manufacturers throughout the world. In the future, the way in which planes and cars will be built will shift, offering greater flexibility and higher quality, a combination which tends to be more economical. MEASUREMENT-ASSISTED ASSEMBLY Jigs and fixtures are used throughout automotive and aerospace production to form repeatable processes. The repeatability is then used for controlling the absolute precision of the processes to ensure the capabilities of production systems. The downside is that these systems are highly complex and lack flexibility. Complex strategies are employed to align measurement results (which are often measured substantially later on the production line), thereby decreasing reaction time and process quality.