THE A400M FINAL ASSEMBLY LINE INDUSTRIALIZATION USING THE LATEST STATE OF THE ART TECHNOLOGIES

摘要

A400M is the brand-new Airbus military aircraft which took off for first time in 2009 after a demanding development program. This aircraft Final Assembly Line Processes and Tests were defined based on the European manufacturer skills and knowledge from previous programs and taking into account new technology challenges, such as the high use of composite in its manufacturing (30% of its weight). The industrialization of the processes regarding assembly concepts, tooling and industrial means technologies, positioning and alignment systems, drilling and riveting procedures and Rapid Prototyping Systems for tailor-made composite parts required technological innovation. In addition, all the ground test processes of this aircraft are supported by a computer aided test system, compound by a software application for the test edition, execution, analysis and management, and hardware input/output modules for the interface with the aircraft system under test, leading to test time and cost reduction. The development and industrialization of the new assembly processes, tooling and test means, focused to face the industrial requirements for series production, have been the key point at A400M development phase and part of the base of the industrialization of the A350 and will be for future aircraft development both civil or military.