Future Automated Aircraft Assembly Demonstrator Phase 2 (FA3D2)

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The Future Automated Aircraft Assembly Demonstrator Phase 2 (FA3D2) will be a national experimental testbed and technology demonstrator in digital and informatics enabled aerospace manufacturing technologies. It is an enhancement of a proof of concept FA3D Phase 1 technology demonstrator developed and funded by the University of Nottingham at £1.5M and commissioned in June 2016. The proposal for FA3D2 has been created as a result of strong interest and ‘pull’ from a number of international aerospace companies some of which are already benefiting from FA3D.The FA3D2 project will provide a unique opportunity for UK based aerospace manufacturing businesses to test and validate world leading technologies to compete on cost and quality with the best rival offshore businesses. It aims to reduce the Capital Expenditure or Non-Recurring Costs (NRC) of a product line by implementing a flexible assembly approach. By providing higher levels of automation based on technology originating from the automotive and other sectors, the aerospace companies will benefit from increased productivity, upskilled labour force, rate increase and dramatically reduced Recurring Costs (RC) to enable UK industry to successfully compete with lower wage economies.The key to this is “High Ramp to Rate Enablement” which is a strategic requirement of the UK’s main Tier 1 Aerospace Manufacturers who are actively supporting the work currently being carried out at the University of Nottingham through a number of projects utilising the FA3D proof of concept. This FA3D2 project is aimed at addressing a strategic shortfall in the national infrastructure for the development of a next generation aerospace flexible assembly system by: • Providing a national experimental testbed and technology demonstrator in digital and informatics enabled aerospace manufacturing technologies• Building on the successful FA3D proof of concept demonstrator funded by the University with an investment of £1.5M mitigating the risks associated with building a larger facility• Converting the strong interest from industry (Airbus, Airbus Helicopters, BAE Systems, GKN, GE Aviation and others) into future projects for building UK assembly & manufacturing capability• Providing support for major ATI and Clean Sky 2 initiatives• Developing a national aerospace assembly demonstrator for digital technologies • Providing significant projected return of investment