Drilling robot

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Robotized Acoustic Micro Drilling
Drilling robot

Robotic Solution for Drilling Composites Acoustic Panels

Manufacturing these panels is a real challenge partly because production rates have never been so high, and partly because of increasing pressure on production costs.

Our sister company GEBE2 designs and manufactures robotic cells with multi-spindle heads that provide greater flexibility than special machines, and are more cost-effective than solutions based on conventional CNC machine. This pioneering solution has been chosen to produce most of the acoustic panels for the LEAP.

Robotic acoustic drilling - Empowering Technologies - GEBE2

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MULTIFUNCTIONNAL ACOUSTIC DRILLING CELL

Machining head

Radio touch probe

Sample holder

Turntable for large parts

Rail to optimize the position of the robot according to the size of the part

Finishing effector, sanding + camera control

Robot for automatic drill bit replacement

Drilling effector storage

Swiveling pendular table for small parts in large series

Examples of robotized drilling of acoustic panels

DRILLING LEAP OPB (ONE PIECE BARREL)

SAFRAN Group, SLCA, is equipped with a GEBE2 drill robot used to manufacture OPB for the LEAP engine. The part is mounted on a turntable for continuous drilling of the whole part periphery.

GEBE2 has supplied a turnkey solution that comprises the robotic cell, the tooling fixture and the part drilling programs.

robotic acoustic drilling composite | GEBE2

AUTOMATIC DRILL BIT CHANGEOVER

If the robot has several end effectors, drill bits are changed in hidden time. However, there is still a need for regular operator intervention.

Drills are therefore changed by a second robot in order to give the drilling cell greater autonomy. This limits operator intervention to once per part during drill loading and replacement.

Sanding finishes

Drilling conditions have to meet several, often conflicting, criteria (delamination, hole entrance quality, cycle time, cutting tool cost, etc…)

Compliance with hole entrance quality is a delicate step in thermoplastics. To avoid the use of costly drills, or the need for manual reworking, the robot is fitted with a specific surface sanding end-effector, thus ensuring that burrs are perfectly removes and that the surface is cleaned at the same time. Learn more about robotic sanding.

Composite robotic sanding after drilling | GEBE2

PATCHING SOFTWARE

The patching software makes it possible to use a library of drilling effectors that can be combined with a given acoustic pattern to produce patches, to be repeated on the surface of a part.

This allows, in real time, when creating a patch on the surface:

To obtain an indication on the POA (Percentage Open Area), according to the diameter of drill used
To ensure compliance with the key parameters: material damage, angular deviation, etc. Should one of the parameters be not within the defined criteria, the operator is warned and can change their patching strategy.
A patch report is generated at the end of the operation, indicating where the patch most unfavorable for each of the parameters is located.

It also has:

Automatic repeating placement functions to increase efficiency
Different display modes (display patches, holes, etc.)
Export functions to create a point file to be used to generate the trajectories of the acoustic drilling robot.

You need to learn more about our robotic acoustic drilling solution? Download our dedicated flyer!

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