Big Parts Demand Big
Changes to the Fiber
Placement Status Quo
Allen Halbritter
Boeing BR&T
Robert Harper
Director- Technical Sales
Points of Discussion
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The Evolution of Manufacturing
Understanding the Entire Manufacturing Process
Creating The Team
Going After the Low Hanging Fruit
The Hard Decisions
The Clear Vision Forward
Summary
Halbritter/Harper
SME 2012
Confidential
2
Boeing 787
Halbritter/Harper
SME 2012
Confidential
787 Current Orders
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SME 2012
Confidential
The Move Towards Composites
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SME 2012
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The Evolution of Manufacturing of Composites
Processes
Hand Wet Layup
Automated Fiber Placement
Hand layup with
Prepreg
Today
Filament Winding
Process
Halbritter/Harper
SME 2012
Confidential
Understanding the Entire Manufacturing Process


The Programming
–
–
–
–
–
–
Grouping
Process Regions
Feeds and Speeds
Bi-Directional/Uni-Directional
Machine Movement Optimization
Approach Movement

Tooling
– Tool Design
– Loading/Unloading
– Machine to Tool Setup
Inspection
–
–

Robust Inspection Tools
Inspection Aids : Inspection platforms (large parts)
The Fiber Placement Machine
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Personnel
Keeping the Beast Fed
Routine Maintenance
Reliability
Shadow Box Key Units
Ease of Use
Flexibility
Heat Source
Machine Design (for the part)
Halbritter/Harper
SME 2012

Repair/Rework
–
–
Defect Documentation
Documented defect rework procedures
Confidential
Creating The Team
 Leadership
– Setting Expectations
 Machine Operators
– Motivated
– Highly Skilled
 Quality
– Dedicated Personnel
– Robust Process
 Maintenance
– Highly Skilled
 Support
– Working as a Team
Halbritter/Harper
SME 2012
Confidential
Composites in Today’s Commercial Aircraft
Halbritter/Harper
SME 2012
Confidential
Baseline Floor to Floor
Machine/Co.:
User Input Data
Generic
Program Calculated Data
Duration/each
1
General
Fiber Placement Productivity Model
Spool Parameters
Material Width
0.25
Weight of single spool
5lbs
Material Related Knockdown
0% slower incycle
Occurrences
Time
Out of cycle time
(min)
Manual
Sugg.
(min)
Load/Unload Tool
120
2
1
Tool Setup/Probe
60
1
368
60
5
400
25
2000
10
20
1
Load Material Spools
Empty Backing Film
Total
195
240
200
2500
Offline Part Estimate
Sample Part Name
Generic Fuselage Barrel
Number of Plies
100
Machine Maintenance
Weight
2000lbs
General Cleaning
5
45
30
In-cycle estimate
2400min
Tow Feed Issue
10
45
5
450
Compaction Roller
30
4
20
120
Component Failure
60
2
5
120
5
30
30
Floor To Floor
Spools Needed
4005 lbs/spools
In-cycle Rate
50lbs/hr
In-cycle
40hours
Out-of Cycle
Misc
Total
110
225
150
1065
232.4hours
Total Time
272.4hours
Computed Knockdown Factor
0.15
Generic Fuselage Barrel
Total Rate
Material Problems
Splice Break
10
15
5
150
Resin/Fuzz Build-up
30
15
5
450
30
5
15
Backing Film Take Up
Total
7.3lbs / hr
70
150
750
Repair/Rework
Vacuum Debulk
120
4
2
480
Ply Inspection
100
60
100
6000
30
10
10
300
100
30
5
3000
Breaks/Shift Change
Repair/Rework
Total
Operator Efficiency
Halbritter/Harper
SME 2012
350
2
Confidential
9780
Baseline Floor to Floor
Baseline
300
Program
13%
8.00
7.00
250
6.00
200
5.00
General
15%
150
Inspect/Rework
61%
Maintenance
6%
Material
5%
4.00
3.00
100
2.00
50
1.00
0
0.00
Baseline
Halbritter/Harper
SME 2012
Confidential
Cycle Time
LBS/HR
Going After the Low Hanging Fruit
 Increase Material Spool Size from 5lbs to 20lbs while also staging material
spools in anticipation of upcoming change.
Increase Spool Size
Program
14%
275
8.40
270
8.20
265
8.00
260
General
6%
Maintenance
7%
Inspect/Rework
68%
255
7.80
250
7.60
245
7.40
240
Material
5%
7.20
235
7.00
230
225
6.80
Baseline
Halbritter/Harper
SME 2012
Spool Size
Confidential
Cycle Time
LBS/HR
Going After the Low Hanging Fruit
 Implement routine cleaning/maintenance in parallel with Ply Inspection.
– Results not only combine activities, thus reducing overall manufacturing time, but also
greatly increases machine reliability due to preventive maintenance verses reactive
maintenance.
280
PM Cleaning
Program
15%
General
6%
Maintenance
4%
Material
3%
Inspect/Rewk
72%
9.00
270
8.50
260
250
8.00
Cycle Time
240
7.50
230
220
7.00
210
200
6.50
Baseline
Halbritter/Harper
SME 2012
Spool Size
Cleaning
Confidential
LBS/HR
Going After the Low Hanging Fruit
 Fine tuning the Program to Match the Current Process
– Match Feeds/Speeds, even if this means to go slower, that will produce the best
quality results, thus reducing repair/rework time, need to do intermediate vacuum
debulks and making inspection of plies easier.
– Short term solution that will be revisited once process is more stable
Slowdown Process
Program
22%
General
7%
Inspect/Rewk
62%
Maintenance
5%
Material
4%
300
12.00
250
10.00
200
8.00
150
6.00
LBS/HR
100
4.00
50
2.00
0
0.00
Baseline Spool Size Cleaning Slowdown
Halbritter/Harper
SME 2012
Cycle Time
Confidential
Going After the Low Hanging Fruit
 Maintenance and Operations working as a Team
– Both clearly understand the end goal……..Produce the absolute best quality
Fuselage Barrel in the least amount of time
– Overlap of Lunch and Breaks in order to keep the machine laying the black sticky
stuff.
– Machine Operators clearly communicate any abnormal issues to allow for
maintenance to troubleshoot and correct the issue in the least amount of time
possible.
– Preventative maintenance in place of reactive maintenance
•
•
Halbritter/Harper
Key spare pre-tested units swapped out on regular intervals
Routine machine maintenance is a line item on Operations Production Schedule and/or
performed during part change over in order to minimize unplanned downtime
SME 2012
Confidential
Going After the Low Hanging Fruit
Working as a Team
Program
23%
300
14.00
250
12.00
10.00
200
8.00
150
General
4%
Maintenance
4%
Material
3%
Inspect/Rewk
66%
Halbritter/Harper
SME 2012
6.00
100
4.00
Cycle Time
50
2.00
LBS/HR
0
0.00
Confidential
The Hard Decisions
 Time to climb the tree in order to continue harvesting the fruit
 Take a closer look at each step of the process to determine what to focus on
next.
– Inspection
•
•
Dedicated Inspectors
Better access to the part
– Repair/Rework
•
Better adherence of tow to part surface, better overall compaction
– Load/Unload of Mandrel
•
Reduce/eliminate variability in time to perform tasks
– Program In Cycle Time Reduction
•
Halbritter/Harper
Reduce overall cycle time without negatively affecting part quality
SME 2012
Confidential
The Hard Decisions
 Inspection
•
•
•
Assign dedicate Inspectors onsite at all time to support the increase manufacturing
demands
Install Part Access Platforms that allow for easy access to the part during inspection
process
Locate Inspection Scanners and Controls at the point of use to avoid unnecessary travel
time to and from
 Repair/Rework
•
•
•
•
Improve part quality in order to reduce/eliminate repair and rework
Utilize multiple compaction devices to better manage plies just over surface irregularities
Convert heating system from forced air to IR to allow significantly better tow adhesion to
the part surface
Provide part access platforms that allow better access to part during repair process
 Load/Unload of Lay-up Mandrel
•
Halbritter/Harper
Replace third party load system with a system that is fully integrated into the control of the
fiber placement equipment supplier to allow seamless and repeatable process.
SME 2012
Confidential
The Hard Decisions
Improved Inspection
300
20.00
18.00
16.00
14.00
12.00
10.00
8.00
6.00
4.00
2.00
0.00
250
Program
27%
200
150
100
50
Inspect/Rewk
60%
General
5%
0
Maintenance
Material 4%
4%
Halbritter/Harper
SME 2012
Confidential
Cycle Time
LBS/HR
The Hard Decisions
 Program In Cycle Time Reduction
Now that the process is stable, it’s time to reduce the In Cycle time need to produce the Barrel
Utilize features within the ACES programming system
•
•
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–
–
–
–
–
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Process Regions
Compactor Approach
Surface Smoothing
Extended Pinch
Minimal Retract Between Course
Ply Grouping
Roll Through
Speedup Process
300
20.00
18.00
16.00
14.00
12.00
10.00
8.00
6.00
4.00
2.00
0.00
250
200
Program
24%
150
100
50
Inspect/Rewor
k
63%
Halbritter/Harper
General
5%
0
Maintenance
4%
Material
4%
SME 2012
Confidential
Cycle Time
LBS/HR
The Clear Vision Forward
 CCR (Cut Clamp Restart) Docking Capability
– Move all planned/unplanned maintenance offline
 3X Cut/Add speeds of current Vipers
 Ability to fiber place tows 30% faster
 Estimated to further reduce overall manufacturing time by moving the
planned/unplanned head maintenance off the machine along with the
reduction in programmed cycle time of upwards of 15%
Halbritter/Harper
SME 2012
Confidential
The Clear Vision Forward
Next Gen Machine
Program
23%
300
25.00
250
20.00
200
15.00
150
General
5%
Maintenance
2%
Inspect/Rewor
k
65%
10.00
100
50
5.00
0
0.00
Material
5%
Halbritter/Harper
SME 2012
Confidential
Cycle Time
LBS/HR
Looking Further into the Future
 It is clear that the next mountain to climb is Inspection. Even with all of the
improvements to the entire process……Inspection of large composites
aerospace parts still consumes the largest piece of the remaining pie?
 Realtime Inspection is the next step towards making automated composite
parts even more affordable.
Halbritter/Harper
SME 2012
Confidential
Looking Further into the Future
Future
Program
35%
300
35.00
250
30.00
25.00
200
20.00
150
15.00
100
Inspect/Rewk
46%
Material
8%
Halbritter/Harper
SME 2012
10.00
50
5.00
0
0.00
General
8%
Maintenance
3%
Confidential
Cycle Time
LBS/HR
Summary
 Continuous Improvement
NC
Programming
Repair/Rework
Customer
Inspection
Equipment Supplier
Machine
Optimization
Tooling
Halbritter/Harper
SME 2012
Confidential
Thank You
Halbritter/Harper
SME 2012
Confidential