reconfigurable-tooling

Reconfigurable Tooling

Flexible Drone Production

SAAB´s nEUROn build required producing a one-off stealth aircraft without the cost or delay of traditional welded tooling. To meet this, Saab implemented a new manufacturing method using Flexapods and BoxJoint systems. Flexapods acted as adjustable 6-axis supports for fuselage sections, positioned manually with jack-screw manipulators and guided by laser trackers and T-MAC probes to achieve ±0.05–0.08 mm accuracy. BoxJoint beams formed a rigid but reconfigurable framework, replacing welded fixtures with bolted modular structures.

This allowed Saab to adapt rapidly to design changes across the aircraft’s seven build stages, instead of rebuilding tooling each time. The process was fully digital, using CATIA, ENOVIA, and DELMIA for configuration, data management, and paperless work instructions, eliminating 2D drawings. The approach delivered major efficiency gains, reducing design and build hours by up to 81%, proving a reusable and economically viable tooling strategy for prototype aerospace programs.

Flexible Systems

There are many benefits to the use of these flexible systems, some of these are as follows:

Increases cost efficiency through the re-use of fixture components on multiple projects,

Reduces fixture design lead times due to the use of dedicated design apps,

Removes the limitations of traditional fixture design which requires component geometry and datum’s to be locked months in advance of manufacture,

Cuts fixture build lead times due to the use of off the shelf modular components,

Facilitates single piece flow on multi product processes.

Innovative manufacturing

Prodtex utilise a number of different reconfigurable tooling systems, both independently and in conjunction with each other in order to provide the optimum solution to meet our clients needs.