Automation of drilling and riveting in Airbus A350 maintenance doors
Company
Omicron is a company specialized in the design and manufacturing of aeronautical tooling, providing the fixtures and accessories required to assemble different parts of an aircraft.
For the Airbus A350 program, the company faced a critical process: drilling and riveting the rear maintenance doors — panels located at the tail of the aircraft that open downward and require maximum precision during assembly. Their objective was to modernize a process that had previously been performed manually.
Challenge
To automate the drilling and riveting process of carbon fiber components in the A350 maintenance doors, ensuring faster, safer, and more precise assembly.
Omicron needed a solution capable of reducing manual intervention, maintaining accuracy in highly sensitive areas, and ensuring consistent quality in a key fuselage component.
Problem
- Risk in critical assemblies: The lack of automation made it difficult to maintain the constant precision required in structural aircraft components.
- Slow and variable manual process: Manual drilling and riveting of carbon fiber required time, expertise, and exhaustive control, potentially generating variability between operators.
- Limited real-time verification capability: There was no system capable of visually validating the accuracy of each hole or rivet during the process.
- High dependence on the human factor: Any deviation in manual execution could affect alignment, structural integrity, and overall assembly quality.
Solution
How we do it?
We developed an intelligent robotic system that fully automates the drilling and riveting process.
- High-precision virtual vision robot: Thanks to an advanced virtual vision system, the robot accurately identifies drilling and riveting points, ensuring extremely tight tolerances.
- Full-cycle automation: The operator only supervises while the robot autonomously executes the complete sequence, ensuring uniformity in every component.
- Workflow optimization: Manual intervention is minimized, accelerating assembly and ensuring repeatable, high-quality results.
Results
- Significant acceleration of the drilling and riveting process in A350 maintenance doors
- Consistent precision thanks to the virtual vision system, eliminating human variability
- Improved structural quality in critical aircraft panels
- Drastic reduction in manual intervention and increased overall assembly efficiency