NOTE: Photo is for reference only – Project is confidential work done with prominent aerospace company.
Overview
Designed, built, and programmed a robotic work cell for an aerospace manufacturer to automate installation of large interference-fit bushings onto tube assemblies.
Project Description
The customer needed to remove operators from a manual band-heater process that carried risk of burns and electrical shock, replace it with a repeatable method that would eliminate heat variability between bushings, and meet throughput and cycle time targets the manual process could not consistently hit — part of a broader initiative to bring automation into the facility.
The solution was an ABB robotic system built around a custom band heater end effector that heated bushings to the required temperature and installed them onto the tube. Scope of work included:
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- Robot design and build — engineered the robotic cell and custom band heater end effector
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- RAPID programming — programmed robot motion and heating cycles using ABB’s RAPID language
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- Electrical troubleshooting — diagnosed and resolved electrical issues during commissioning
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- Documentation and certification — wrote all custom manuals and process documentation; certified the asset through ISO and RIO for production use