BAE Systems has made a multimillion pound (dollar) investment in digital manufacturing technologies and is taking more than 40 blue-chip and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) companies and academic institutions along for the ride.
At its site in Warton, Lancashire, BAE Systems is applying Industry 4.0 practices alongside new tech to advance the production of the UK’s next generation combat aircraft system, known as Tempest.
The factory is creating an engineering and manufacturing environment that utilizes automation, robotics, and virtual/augmented reality. Leveraging these new technologies has the potential to increase precision and efficiency, as well as make the process of producing complex aerospace components less expensive.
Notably, the company’s incorporation of cobots, or collaborative robots, and flexible robotic technologies provides the ability to pivot production lines. Changing out machine tools, tooling, work cells, and overall processes are the biggest time-consuming elements of factory life. By leveraging new digital technologies, intelligent machines, and off-the-shelf robotic systems from the auto industry that have been modified to meet aerospace tolerances, this factory is prepared for a new age of manufacturing.
Using “smart” technology like this allows operators to concentrate on high-skill tasks, rather than menial processes.
Dave Holmes, the manufacturing director for BAE Systems Air, said, “Driving our manufacturing capabilities forward as we prepare for the fourth Industrial Revolution will sustain and develop critical skillsets and ensure we can continue to deliver military capability to address future threats, whilst improving productivity and delivering value for money for our customers.”
The Typhoon aircraft production line uses an intelligent workstation, which was developed with The University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) and Fairfield Control Systems. The workstation uses “pick by light” technologies to recognize operators and delivers instructions that are personalized to an operator’s role and needs.
Incorporating new digital technologies has also made it possible for additive manufacturing technologies to be used in production of the Typhoon parts and assemblies. Using 3D printing as a means of production is only now becoming a reality, but technologies like these show promise for its future in manufacturing.
The factory itself forms what BAE Systems calls a “full model-based engineering approach.” This type of operation is also known as digital twinning because they are, essentially, modeling a digital twin of every platform and subsystem so collaboration can occur in a digital environment.
On the Typhoon production line, intelligent workstations were implemented back in 2019, optical projection technology is being used to make an optimal fin, and automated electrical looming is being used to install cabling into the aircraft’s fuselage. And the new systems and facility are already producing results, as they are planning to deliver more cost-effective parts in half the time of previous programs.