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The utilization of new materials and tightening of desired tolerances has driven the advancement of Practical and Portable Automated Machining. Increased demand in volume within the aerospace industry not only requires minimizing the amount of manual operations, but also applying automation inside existing manual fixtures. In the past, manual labor, with drastic limitations on achievable accuracies, has been utilized in areas that machine tools cannot either access or the limited amount of work does not justify the expense of additional machines. Assemblies requiring critical hole alignment or drilling through stack materials often are difficult to achieve using manual operations. The solution is a practical and very portable machining unit that is small enough to fit into otherwise difficult areas and is lightweight enough to be either moved into position by small machines or quickly disassembled/assembled with each subassembly capable of being positioned manually.

The improvements in Parallel Kinematic Machines (PKM) coupled with new innovative technologies, allow for Advanced Automated Milling, Drilling and Fastening in the Aerospace industry. Providing economical alternatives to processes that currently utilize highly customized machine tools, sacrificing flexibility and dynamics, or complex robotic cells sacrificing system capabilities with the rigidity and accuracy limitations of serial robots. The latest in PKM technology eliminates the ball joints that were mandatory in all previous PKM machines, as well as the heavy platforms or structures supporting the actuators. This allows for the strength and rigidity common to machine tools, but with the flexibility and high dynamics associated with standard serial robots. The new use of Auto-Calibration and cross lasers allow for highly accurate positioning, adaptation to a material surface, edge, datum, hole, etc. or to reference the machine to the adjacent work zone.