Automated Aircraft Sheet Metal Component Production Technologies

Abstract

This article comprehensively presents an overview of the technological advances in automated aircraft sheet metal component production technology developments due to the initiative by the Aeronautical Development Agency, Ministry of Defense, Government of India, since 1989 in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. Commencing with a modest computer-aided flat pattern development software system suitable for a class of sheet metal components, this activity after several stages of development has now resulted in the development of full-fledged, personal-computer-based graphical interactive, three-dimensional application flat pattern development and automated production loft generation system. This research, encompassing the practical methods (exclusively developed for flat pattern software), literature survey, development of key algorithms suitable for designing a system for automated loft generation for a variety of surfaces with complex geometric features characteristic of aircraft sheet metal components with the aid of a wide choice of surface model creations, and testing and validation (carried out through an associated aircraft factory, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited), is now being published through four full-length papers concluding with the present paper. In fact, comprehensive illustrations of production lofts sampled from over thousands of parts used in the factory pertinent to the Indian Light Combat Aircraft (termed as Tejas) and other projects like Advanced Light Helicopter (termed as Dhruv) sheet metal components are included here to provide insight into these developments, and also to provide a glimpse of the success of the mission of indigenous automated aircraft sheet metal component manufacture.