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A new automated production system for installation of Lightweight Groove Proportioned (LGP) and Hi-Lock bolts in wing panels has been implemented in the Boeing 737 wing manufacturing facility in Renton, Washington. The system inserts LGP and Hi-Lok bolts into interference holes using a ball screw mechanical squeeze process supported by a back side rod-locked pneumatic clamp cylinder. Collars are fed and loaded onto a swage die retaining pin, and swaging is performed through ball screw mechanical squeeze. Offset and straight collar tools allow the machine to access 99.9% of fasteners in 3/16″, ¼″ and 5/16″ diameters. Collar stripping forces are resolved using a dynamic ram inertial technique that reduces the pull on the work piece. Titanium TN nuts are fed and loaded into a socket with a retaining spring, and installed on Hi-Loks Hi-Lok with a Bosch right angle nut runner.

Kawasaki Heavy Industries (Nagoya, Japan) designs and builds the fuselage barrel section #43 of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner. The one-piece-barrel (OPB) fuselage design offered a new challenge to fastening equipment assembly cells. Using conventional methods, a fastening machine built around the roughly 6 meter diameter barrel would be very large, heavy, slow and inaccurate. The solution was to use Electroimpact's EMR technology on two smaller independent post machines with a reduced working envelope offering better speed, reliability and still maintaining the high accuracies required. Optimizing the working envelope and using EMR technology were pivotal factors in achieving the positioning accuracies required for a reliable fastening process that is maintainable in a production environment and increased access to fastener locations.

A new method of installing LGP collars onto titanium lock bolts has been brought into production in the Airbus wing manufacturing facility in Broughton, Wales. The feed system involves transporting the collar down a rectangular cross-sectioned hose, through a rectangular pathway in the machine clamp anvil to the swage die without the use of fingers or grippers. This method allows the reliable feeding the collars without needing to adjust the position of feed fingers or grippers relative to the tool centerline. Also, more than one fastener diameter can be fed through one anvil geometry, requiring only a die change to switch between certain fastener diameters. In our application, offset and straight stringer geometries are accommodated by the same anvil.

A new wing panel riveting cell capable of replacing tack fasteners and performing small repair jobs has been developed. Using two mobile scissor lift platforms with electromagnetic riveters mounted on each, the operators can access every portion of the wing panel without the use of ladders or platforms. This method minimizes fatigue, allows workers to carry all tools and supplies with them, meets current safety standards and minimizes coldworking of the components.

British Aerospace, Airbus Ltd., Chester, UK manufactures the main wing box assembly for all current Airbus programs. Titanium interference fasteners are used in large numbers throughout these aircraft structures. On the lower wing skin of the A320 alone there are approximately 11,000 of this fastener type. Currently, the majority of these fasteners are manually installed using pneumatic or hydraulic tooling. British Aerospace engineers recognized the significant potential which automation offers to reduce these current labor intensive installation methods. Electroimpact proposed extending Low Voltage Electromagnetic Riveter (LVER) technology to the automatic installation of these interference fasteners as well as rivets. Close liaison between Airbus and Electroimpact engineers resulted in the development of an automated LVER based lockbolt installation system, which is currently undergoing evaluation.