Manufacturing apparatus and method of manufacturing the helicopter main rotor blade

摘要

A compaction fixture (10) for assembling and compacting a blade subassembly (132) that includes an upper composite skin (110), a lower composite skin (112), a honeycomb core (114), and a spar assembly (116, 118), comprising: a lower assembly (12) including a support structure (16), a contoured upper airfoil nest (14) mounted in combination with said support structure (16), said contoured upper airfoil nest (14) having an outer mold line surface that defines the airfoil surface of the upper composite skin (110), a plurality of tooling pins (20) for locating the upper composite skin (110) in aligned combination with said contoured upper airfoil nest (14), and a plurality of pusher pins (22) for locating the spar assembly (116, 118) in chordwise alignment in said contoured upper airfoil nest (14), and a spar stanchion (24) mounted in combination with said support structure (16) at the inboard and outboard ends of said contoured upper airfoil nest (14), respectively, for locating the spar assembly (116, 118) in spanwise alignment in said contoured upper airfoil nest (14); an upper assembly (30) including a structural support truss (36), a contoured backplate (34) affixed to said structural support truss (36), and a pressure bag (32) fastened in sealed combination with said contoured backplate (34), said pressure bag (32) having spanwise and chordwise dimensions corresponding to the blade subassembly (132); means (38, 26) for locking said upper assembly (30) in combination with said lower assembly (12) wherein compaction of the blade subassembly (132) assembled in said lower assembly (12) may be effectuated; and means (40) for pressurizing said pressure bag (32) with said upperand lower assemblies (30, 12) in locked combination to compact the blade subassembly (132) assembled in said lower assembly (12). IMAGE