Modular Design and Layout Planning of Tooling Structures for Aircraft Assembly

Aircraft structures consist of numerous complex components that require a high level of precision to assemble. Tooling plays a crucial role in the assembly of aircraft components, providing the functions of positioning, shape maintenance, and support to guarantee the accuracy of the product. Aiming to obtain reusable assembly tooling that can be rapidly reconfigured, this study focuses on the modular design and layout of tooling structures. The concept of functional elements for the characterization of tooling parts is proposed, and the relationship between each pair of elements is established to clarify the similarities and dependencies among various tooling structures. Based on the analysis of functional elements and their relationships, the tooling structures are divided and recombined into several modules. The detailed module designs are demonstrated by using typical structures such as platforms, columns, and locators as examples. A parametric representation of the multi-source information of tooling modules is proposed, and optimization methods for the layout and configuration of locators and platforms are developed using their parametric information. A reconfigurable tooling process integrated with a monitoring system is designed, realized, and successfully applied to the assembly of a practical type of fuselage. The results from verifying these methods' efficiencies show that the modular design and reconfiguration planning of tooling only takes about 10 min and a few seconds, respectively, which is far less than the time consumed during traditional tooling design (from several days to weeks). The work in this study provides an engineering paradigm for the serialization and reconfiguration of assembly tooling in aviation manufacturing.