One aircraft is made up of millions of CNC machined components. From wing spars to turbines, from cabin seats to fuselage elements, these parts are being manufactured every day worldwide. And precision and accuracy are vital to ensure these parts are machined correctly. In this article, we explore the importance of both precision and accurate manufacturing within the industry and ways this can be increased across various processes.
Why are precision and accuracy together so important?
Precision and accuracy complement each other to deliver the best results for manufacturers. Accurate measurements are those that are closest to what they should be and what manufacturers chase every day. Precise measurements are those which are repeated. Therefore, accuracy and precision together allow aerospace manufacturers to achieve both accurate and repeatable results.
When this happens within aerospace manufacturing processes, the following benefits can be realised:
Increased safety
Safety is the number one priority in air travel. As a result, high quality standards are in place across the industry and components must adhere to these regulations to ensure they will function exactly as required and be reliable. If not, the safety of the aircraft could be compromised. A definitive way to guarantee parts will pass quality standards is to remove human error from manufacturing processes and ensure there is no risk of this detrimentally affecting parts. Metrology automation software suites, like MSP PerfectPart, can mitigate these risks by automating processes and preventing errors from occurring.
Smooth assembly
Micron-accurate parts ensure a smooth final assembly where parts fit together perfectly, with no unnecessary fitting or fettling operations needed. One common area of the manufacturing process that can often be detriment to this is the part setup and alignment process. Achieving optimum accuracy with traditional manual operations is a time-consuming process and cannot guarantee accuracy every time. Using automated metrology, like NC-PartLocator, generates an accurate alignment in minutes and automatically uploads it to the controller to secure accurate alignments each time.
Reduced rework and scrap
If the manufacturing process is producing accurate, in-tolerance parts repeatably, the risk of scrapping parts or parts requiring rework is significantly reduced. This helps save wasted time, material and resources that is so precious in aerospace manufacturing. For full reduction of scrap or rework, all errors should be removed from probe setup, probe calibration and part alignment processes, and the CNC machine’s performance should be monitored to ensure its capable of machining parts to tolerance. This also has added benefits for improving sustainability; something that is a pressing issue for aerospace manufacturers and the industry.
Standardisation
If automated metrology solutions, such as MSP PerfectPart, are used to achieve precision and repeatable results, this can also provide a unified process that can be applied across different machine types, factories and shopfloors for increased quality and control. Using automation software instead of manual setup techniques can also provide consistent output regardless of varying individual skill levels for increased reliability and precision. Standardising processes like this makes it possible to achieve the high-quality standards in place across the aerospace industry.
Suitability for complex parts
Aircraft parts can often be intricate with many features or complex geometry yet need to be machined to tight tolerances. It is imperative an accurate and precise process is in place to machine these parts successfully. Introducing advanced CNC metrology, like automated Best-Fit alignment technology, can create this solid process and ensure right-first-time parts are produced every time.
