Title: Drivmatic® Automatic Fastening System with Single Robot Positioner
text: The focus of this technical paper is a unique automatic fastening system configuration for loading, positioning & unloading pre-tacked door assemblies within a static C-Frame Drivmatic® fastening machine using an off-the-shelf, high accuracy Fanuc robot. In 2011, PMC was awarded a significant contract for supplying commercial OEM aircraft doors and recognized automation was the most feasible approach for fastening each door assembly. At the time of contract award, PMC was an established aero structure supplier with significant automation capability for machining high tolerance parts & assemblies and manual fastening resources to support many different OEM programs however PMC did not have automatic fastening experience or capability. In support of this new Tier-2 contract, PMC reached out to Gemcor to propose a collaborative robot solution for automatically fastening 5 different door assemblies that were historically fastened using a semi-automatic configuration. Demand for quality rivet & Hi-lok installation, preventing rework, fast throughput and avoiding a foundation paved the way for Gemcor to develop a lean approach for fastening some of the most challenging and labor intensive aero structure assemblies.