Introduction to Assembly

An Aerospace
Manufacturing
Perspective

Course Overview

Introduction
Assembly Concepts
Constraint
Fixtures
Assembly features
Tolerance stacks

copyright J. Anderson, 2008

Assembly The Necessary Evil

Assembly is inherently integrative

brings parts together
brings people, departments, companies together
can be the glue for concurrent engineering
Assembly is where the product comes to life
there arent many one-part products
Assembly is where quality is delivered
quality is delivered by chains of parts, not by any
single most important part
copyright J. Anderson, 2008

Assembly

The term assembly covers a wide field

From a lowly pencil sharpener with less than 20 parts to an

advanced fighter aircraft like the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter
with hundreds of thousands parts

copyright J. Anderson, 2008

The Study of Assembly

Traditional unit processes
studied for 150+ years
Assembly studied perhaps
40 years
Most assembly process
design and actual assembly
is manual
Surge in interest in robot
assembly in the 70s
Interest in appropriate
technology today
copyright J. Anderson, 2008

Manual vs. Automated Assembly

People just do it
Machines cant just do it
It was hoped that robots
could just do it
Early robot research
focused on imitating what
people do
obehave flexibly
ouse their senses
ofix mistakes
copyright J. Anderson, 2008

What happened""
Too slow and too costly
No one knew how to do an economic
analysis and most didnt care at first
People do what they do because of
their strengths and weaknesses - same
with robots
Today there is a place for robots,
people, and fixed automation in
assembly
The issue is to decide which is best
and how to prepare the environment

copyright J. Anderson, 2008

Robotics as a Driver for Assembly

Automation
Robotics raises a number of
generic issues:
flexibility vs efficiency
generality vs specificity
responsiveness or
adaptation vs preplanning
absorption of uncertainty vs
elimination of uncertainty
lack of structure vs
structure
copyright J. Anderson, 2008

Assembly = Constraint
1. Assembly = removal of dof =
application of constraint
2. As constraint is applied, degrees
of freedom are taken away so that
a part gets to where it is
supposed to be.
3. When parts are where they are
supposed to be, the key
characteristics of the assembly
can be delivered, assuming no
variation
4. This is called the nominal design
copyright J. Anderson, 2008

Constraint is Accomplished by
Surfaces in Contact

copyright J. Anderson, 2008

Degrees of Freedom
An object's location in space is completely
specified when three translations (X, Y, Z)
and three rotations (X,Y, Z ) are specified
How many DOFs are constrained for a cube
on table (x-y plane)?
- rotation about x & y and translation
along z; therefore 3 degrees of
freedom are constrained

copyright J. Anderson, 2008

Assembly Constraint
1. Proper constraint provides a single value for each
of a bodys 6 degrees of freedom (dof)
2. This is done by establishing surface contacts with
surfaces on another part or parts
3. If less than 6 dof have definite values, the body is
under-constrained
4. If an attempt is made to provide 2 or more values
for a dof, then the body is over-constrained
because rigid bodies have only 6 dof
5. Any extra needed dof must be obtained by
deforming the object
copyright J. Anderson, 2008

Example of Proper and Over

Constraint

Proper constraint permits an

assembly to have unambiguous
chains of delivery of KCs

copyright J. Anderson, 2008

"Good" Over-constrained
Assemblies
Preloaded angular contact bearing systems
Preload increases contact stress, creating a stiff bearing
system (see next page)

Planetary gears - redundant locators, no stress

Shrink fit
Heated wheel slips on over shaft, shrinks upon cooling to make
a super-tight joint

Beam built in at both ends

It's stiffer for the same cross section than a simply- supported
beam because the ends can support a moment
A good design permits longitudinal motion at the ends

In each case there is an underlying properly constrained

system!
copyright J. Anderson, 2008

Why Does Over-Constraint Occur?

Forces or torques are deliberately inserted, e.g.
Shrinking
Tightening a lock nut
The design attempts to fix more than 6 degrees of
freedom of a part, e.g.
The x position is determined by the part's left end
The part's x position is determined by the part's
right end
There is a fight whose outcome is compression in
the x direction and no easy way to calculate the x
position
copyright J. Anderson, 2008

Tipoffs for Over-constraint

1. It takes skill to put the parts
together and get them just right
2. The assembly task is operatordependent
3. Fasteners have to be tightened
in a particular sequence
4. It is hard to get welded parts out
of the fixture
5. Some parts will assemble easily
but other "identical" ones will not
6. You can never get everything to
line up the way you want it to
7. Results are inconsistent
copyright J. Anderson, 2008

Location and Stability

copyright J. Anderson, 2008

Force Closures and Form

Closures
Force closures are one-sided
They support force in one direction at a definite
location
They can provide proper constraint

Form closures are two-sided

They can support unlimited force
They will generate over-constraint unless some
clearance is provided
If clearance is provided, then the location is no longer
definite
copyright J. Anderson, 2008

One-Side and Two-Side

Constraints
One-side (AKA force closure)
Needs an effector
Gives perfect knowledge of location but
can't support an arbitrary force in all
directions

Two- or multi-side constraint (AKA form

closure)
Needs no effector and can support arbitrary
force
Contains its own stabilizer
Actually contains over-constraint
If we relax this over-constraint with a little
clearance then we lose perfect
knowledge of location
copyright J. Anderson, 2008

When Parts are Joined, Degrees of

Freedom are Fixed
Parts join at places called assembly features Different
features constrain different numbers and kinds of
degrees of freedom of the respective parts
(symmetrically)
Parts may join by
one pair of features
multiple features
several parts working together,
each with its own features

When parts mate to fixtures, dofs are constrained

copyright J. Anderson, 2008

F35 Horizontal Stabilizer Fixture

Fixture

Stabilizer structure
copyright J. Anderson, 2008

How Airplanes are Built

Boeing:
Ensure that there is open space
at max material condition
Fill the gap with shims, reducing
gap to XXX
Report remaining gap to
Engineering
Lately: use better process
control to predict gaps and
prepare standard shims in as
many cases as possible
Airbus:
Make parts from 3D CAD/NC
Join them directly
No shims
Both attempt to limit locked-in stress
copyright J. Anderson, 2008

F/A 18 Horizontal Stabilizer

Position Skin
Uses Hard Tool
Suspended by a Crane

Suction Cups for

Holding Skin

Typical Tool on
Storage Rack

Opportunity for Automation

Install Torque
Clecos

Cure Liquid
Shim
Current Cure
Time is 8 Hours

Remove Skin
Using Hard
Tool

Install Skin
Inspect Liquid
Shim and Repair

Using Hard
Tool

copyright J. Anderson, 2008

F/A 18 Horizontal Stabilizer, contd

Move Structure
into Automated
Drill Machine

Drill & Countersink

Holes Full Size

Drill & Countersink Tack

Rivets to Full Size

Inspect Holes
Using Renishaw
Probe

Move Structure
into Workstand

Install Fasteners

Sample Skin and

Frame

copyright J. Anderson, 2008

Examples of Engineering Features

copyright J. Anderson, 2008

Statistical and Worst Case

Compared

copyright J. Anderson, 2008