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US 6,170,157 B2Granted
Determinant spar assembly
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorsClayton L. Munk, Paul E. Nelson, David E. Strand
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus for manufacturing wing spars includes a fixture that holds spar webs for drilling and edge trimming by accurate numerically controlled machine tools using original numerical part definition records, utilizing spatial relationships between key features of detail parts or subassemblies as represented by coordination features machined into the parts and subassemblies, thereby making the parts and subassemblies intrinsically determinant of the dimensions and contour of the wing.
Claims33
A method of accurately assembling parts, including upper and lower chords, on a web to manufacture a wing spar, comprising:
- positioning said web rigidly on a fixture in a predetermined spatial orientation accessible by a CNC machine tool;
- probing coordination features on said web with a probe with reference to a fixed known location to determine the actual position of said web on said fixture with relation to said fixed known location;
- normalizing a machine tool program having locations of said coordination features with said actual locations in space of said coordination features as determined by said probe;
- drilling chord locator tool coordination holes with said machine tool using said normalized machine tool program to direct a drill held by said machine tool to locations for mounting chord locator tools on said web;
- temporarily mounting said chord locator tools on said web with fasteners through said chord locator tool coordination holes, said chord locator tools each having upper and lower contact surfaces thereon at vertical spacings corresponding to desired vertical spacing of said chords on said web;
- supporting said upper and lower chords on said upper and lower contact surfaces of said chord locator tools at precisely accurate positions along upper and lower edges of said web;
- clamping said upper and lower chords to said web at said edge positions;
- drilling fastener holes through said upper and lower chords and said web and inserting fasteners in said fastener holes;
- tightening said fasteners in said fastener holes to securely fasten said upper and lower spar chords to said web;
- and
- removing said chord locator tools.
8 more elements
A method of accurately assembling parts, including upper and lower spar chords and rib posts, on a spar web to manufacture a wing spar, comprising:
- positioning said web on a support stand by use of a pin through a coordination hole in said web and in said support stand, and holding said web immobile on said support stand;
- drilling rib post coordination holes in said web at locations that will match with corresponding coordination holes in said rib posts, so that said rib posts will be accurately located when said coordination holes in said rib posts and said web are aligned;
- drilling chord locator tool coordination holes in said web at locations for mounting chord locator tools on said web;
- mounting said chord locator tools on said web with fasteners through said locator tool coordination holes;
- supporting said upper and lower spar chords on said chord locator tools at precisely accurate positions along upper and lower edges of said web;
- clamping said upper and lower spar chords to said web at said edge positions;
- drilling fastener holes through said upper and lower spar chords and said web and inserting fasteners in said fastener holes;
- tightening said fasteners in said fastener holes to securely fasten said upper and lower spar chords to said web;
- removing said chord locator tools;
- wherein said drilling is done using drills and cutters on a precision computer controlled machine tool that is directed to the drilling locations using a digital dataset taken directly from digital engineering part definition records.
7 more elements
A method of making wing spars, comprising:
- hanging a spar web on a fixture;
- probing said spar web with a probe carried by a numerically controlled machine tool to accurately determine the spatial location of a plurality of critical coordination features on said spar web;
- drilling a plurality of web coordination holes in said web using a numerically controlled machine tool running on a program incorporating digital wing product definition from an engineering data authority, said web coordination holes being accurately located in a predetermined position on said web such that upper and lower spar chords can be positioned on said web with a vertical separation between them specified by said digital wing product;
- clamping said spar chords to said spar web;
- and
- fastening said spar chords to said spar web in said predetermined position specified by said digital wing product definition.
3 more elements
A chord locator tool for positioning a pair of chords having reference surfaces at a certain desired vertical spacing and position on a web of an airplane wing spar, comprising:
- an elongated body having upper and lower contact surfaces adjacent upper and lower ends of said elongated body;
- coordination features on said body at positions corresponding to coordination features on said web, such that registry of said coordination features on said body and said web positions said body on said web with said contact surfaces at said desired position of said reference surfaces relative to said web;
- whereby said body is positioned on said web by registry of said coordination features of said body with said coordination features of said web and is secured thereto, and said chords are placed in contact with said contact surfaces of said body to accurately locate said chords at said desired position relative to each other and said web where they may be drilled by a machine tool to provide fastener holes by which said chords may be attached to top and bottom edges of said web.
A method of assembling an airplane wing component having an upright web with upper and lower edges, and upper and lower chords attached to said upper and lower edges of said web at predetermined positions on said web and at predetermined vertical spacings between said chords, said chords defining between them a critical thickness profile for a wing in which said wing component is to be installed, comprising:
- supporting said web rigidly in a predetermined spatial orientation accessible by a precision machine tool controlled by a computer operated machine controller;
- producing a control program for said controller with data from digital part definition records in an engineering authority for said part;
- loading and running said control program to operate said controller and drive said machine tool to machine coordination features in said web with cutting tools mounted in said machine tool;
- registering said coordination features relative to coordination features on said chords to position said chords at said predetermined positions on said web with a high degree of precision;
- clamping said chords to said web at said predetermined positions on said web and at said predetermined vertical spacings between said chords;
- and
- fastening said chords to said web at said predetermined positions thereon.
4 more elements
An airplane wing component, comprising:
- an elongated upright web having upper and lower flanges for fastening to upper and lower wing panels, said flanges having installation coordination holes drilled therein for accurately locating said wing component relative to said wing panels to produce a wingbox;
- said installation coordination holes drilled in said flanges using a drill bit in a machine tool under control of a controller programmed with a program incorporating digital wing product definition data from an ultimate engineering authority that specifies locations of said installation coordination holes for positioning said wing component relative to said wing panels at a position specified in said digital wing product definition when said installation coordination holes are aligned with corresponding coordination holes in said wing panels.
A determinantly assembled airplane wing spar, comprising:
- an elongated upright web;
- upper and lower chords fastened to said web by chord-to-web fasteners extending through chord-to-web fastener holes;
- rib posts fastened to said web by post-to-web fasteners extending through post-to-web fastener holes;
- at least some of said post-to-web fastener holes coinciding in position with post-to-web coordination holes drilled by a precision machine tool operating under the control of a machine controller programmed with a part program incorporating digital wing product definition data from an ultimate engineering authority that specifies locations of said post-to-web coordination holes for positioning said rib posts relative to said web at a position specified in said digital wing product definition when said post-to-web coordination holes are aligned with corresponding coordination holes in said web.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.