How to absorb the achievements of Boeing's digital

How to absorb the achievements of Boeing's digital revolution

in the development process of Boeing 777~787 and Lockheed Martin F35, the digital manufacturing adopted by Boeing in the United States has shortened the development cycle to 1/3 and reduced the development cost by 50% compared with the traditional way, creating a precedent for aviation digital manufacturing. Recently, in the development of the new generation ares space vehicle and the avionics upgrade of the C130, Boeing has adopted mbd/mbi (model-based definition and work instructions) to shorten the assembly period by 57%, bringing digital manufacturing to a deeper level of the manufacturing site. Although China's aviation industry has made great progress in some aspects of digital manufacturing in recent years, the lag in history and the gap in the speed of research and development have put serious pressure on China's aviation manufacturing industry. Keeping up with the pace of the development of digital manufacturing in the world aviation industry and making aviation enterprises rapidly realize the transformation from traditional production mode to digital production mode has become our urgent task

digital manufacturing covers the whole process of product life cycle, but at present, there are many relevant literatures involving digital design and digital simulation, while it is relatively weak to promote the faster development of digital manufacturing from the perspective of manufacturing management and digital "landing" in the production workshop. This paper focuses on the digital factory, trying to discuss the balanced development of digital manufacturing

digitalization is a profound technological revolution

digitalization is not only a progress of technical means, and informatization and digitalization cannot be confused. Several aviation industry experts led by Gu Songfen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, pointed out that "digitalization has created a new mode of production for the manufacturing industry". They believe that "digitalization is a profound technological revolution", "Digitalization is changing the world, and the digitalized mode of production is fundamentally shaking the foundation of traditional manufacturing industry, giving birth to a technological revolution in manufacturing industry". From the focus of the technological competition between Boeing and Airbus in aviation manufacturing, it can be seen that "the competition in the manufacturing industry has been reflected in the competition of the core ability of digitalization". This paper first understands the significance of Gu Songfen and other experts' placing design and manufacturing digitalization at the height of technological revolution

1 the development of engineers' own tools is slow

in modern human society, the development of engineering and products is amazing. In great contrast, the development of the means of describing products and transmitting product manufacturing information in the engineering community is slow. Since the invention of descriptive geometry in 1795 and the invention of blueprints in 1840, people have been using two-dimensional plane engineering views to describe products. This two-dimensional engineering drawing, which has been used for more than 200 years, was once the only way to show the product information. However, human thinking is multidimensional. When engineers create new products, the first thing that emerges is multidimensional entity images rather than plane views. In order to convey the information of the product to the people who make it, this living entity must be transformed into a complex plane figure that is recognized by the engineering community. The waste is not only the drawing of projection map, but also the thinking of transforming from entity image to abstract view expression, and the unclear expression and errors in the process of transformation. After receiving this plane figure, the manufacturing engineer has to restore its three-dimensional shape with imagination to compile the process. This is another waste of thinking, brain power and time. And the understanding of plane graphics is often the key to whether a good manufacturing process can be designed, and errors in the understanding of drawings often occur. After workers get this kind of work instruction described by plane graphics, they must also understand it as a three-dimensional entity, and waste and errors are more likely to occur. For a hundred years, the manufacturing industry has paid a huge price for the conversion of this kind of plane graphics

in addition, the product protection after its operation is very important; In addition, the performance of two-dimensional drawings on products is simulated and imprecise, and the performance ability is limited. For example, the shape of an aircraft wing is a complex surface obtained from aerodynamic calculations and experiments, which can only be described point by point with multiple sections on the drawing. Using two-dimensional drawings to express these complex shapes leads to the transformation from continuous accurate shapes to discontinuous approximate shapes. This process also wastes time and energy, and brings errors. The emergence of CNC machine tools partially solves the problem of information transmission of this kind of scientific curve (surface) shape. However, the machining program of most parts is still converted from plane graphics

in aircraft manufacturing, from the graphics of products to the convex and concave die lines, templates, assembly frames, and inspection templates at all levels of the mold for manufacturing them, they need to be transferred and transferred many times. In the era of no digital manufacturing, these works were all painted by hand and ground with fine tools under a magnifying glass. Efficiency and accuracy are seriously restricted

2 the contribution of traditional CAD

the development of information technology has led to the emergence of computer-aided design CAD software. At the end of the last century, CAD only helped people draw 2D drawings. "Get rid of the drawing board" has greatly accelerated the speed of producing 2D drawings, liberated the physical labor of engineers, and also laid off many cartographers. But getting rid of the drawing board did not get rid of the drawings, nor did it touch the fundamental problem of brain waste and conversion errors

3 the emergence of CAD for solid modeling and the significance of digitization

with the progress of computer technology, a new generation of CAD software has emerged. In the virtual environment of computer, the solid models of products and parts can be directly constructed according to the thinking of designers. After giving the necessary features and attributes to this virtual 3D solid model, the designer's creativity can be directly and intuitively expressed. The image and accurate description of the parts are stored in the computer rather than on the plane drawing. The design information is directly transmitted to the places where it is processed all over the world. According to the 3D model, the manufacturing process and NC program are compiled and transmitted to the NC machine tool for processing. Since then, it has completely changed the way of engineering design and the transmission of design information, including power switch information

in the past development process, only after making a real product prototype can we find the design errors or inconsistencies, carry out real load and aerodynamic tests, and correct them according to the test results. Such repetition increases the development cycle and the capital consumption of a large number of materials and experimental equipment construction. The use of digital product model can carry out the simulation and test that must be carried out by physical objects, which saves a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources, especially the consumption of time, and promotes lean manufacturing to the field of product design and reduces the waste of engineers' own brain power

therefore, the description of product information and the transmission between various links of manufacturing, from analog, two-dimensional plane mode to three-dimensional, digital mode, has become a major revolution in the history of human manufacturing engineering. It avoids a lot of 3D and 2D conversion, and avoids a lot of work that must be judged, evaluated and confirmed by physical objects. It can be precisely defined in advance, simulated and optimized, and the possible errors can be solved in advance. Put things in the physical world into the virtual world, which greatly reduces the cost and production cycle. The effectiveness of a series of applications based on 3D digital models is unmatched by any technological progress in any period in the past

4 description of the panorama of digital manufacturing

in recent years, the American aviation industry has made great progress. The following figure is the schematic diagram of the whole process of digital manufacturing of Ares spacecraft. It can be seen that in this example, It has broken through several practical transitions from 3D solid models to manufacturing and workshop transfer:

1) the manufacturability of 3D models

2) the transformation from 3D design to 3D process

3) the transmission of 3D product and process information to manufacturing workers

4) digital data collection and feedback at the manufacturing site

5) the management of digital quality and compliance documents

the digital development of Ares spacecraft in the United States Process

in the long manufacturing digital information chain, the transition from the huge and deep-rooted traditional method based on 2D to the new production mode based on 3D is a serious and long-term task. The shift from traditional manufacturing to digital manufacturing is a serious "reengineering" process that shakes all the current processes of manufacturing factories, involving profound reengineering in technology, management, quality, regulatory requirements, corporate culture, factory hardware configuration, staff education, etc. There are even some unexpected troubles on the road to digital manufacturing. At present, China's aviation manufacturing industry must quickly connect all links of the digital information chain

second, understand digital manufacturing

you can understand digital manufacturing from different perspectives. In the field of aviation industry, there is faulty soldering or open circuit in the connection between regulated power supply and digital, which is often studied separately from digital design and digital manufacturing. This paper discusses digital manufacturing from the standpoint of manufacturing site, which is the base for the formation of physical products and the cradle of product value proliferation, in order to promote the implementation of digital manufacturing in the manufacturing site. Therefore, let's start with the digital factory

1About "digital factory"

defining digitalization is the starting point to decide what we should do and how to do in the field of digitalization. This paper believes that digitalized factory is a new manufacturing capability or mode. The digital factory uses the three-dimensional digital model of products to define and optimize the manufacturing process of products, and provides digital manufacturing instructions and operation guidance information to various operators of manufacturing operations; In manufacturing operations, operators also use digital means and devices to feed back digital operation status information to the upper business process

the scenario description of the digital factory is that the information transmitted and collected in the manufacturing process is digital and 3D, so it must be paperless. Microcomputers, mobile terminals, rfid/barcode equipment, software PLC, digital measurement equipment and wireless industrial Ethernet distributed at various operation points are the basic devices equipped at the factory site. Most of the equipment that realizes manufacturing operations is digitally controlled

the digital chemical plant most directly and maximally simplifies the conversion process of information transmission in the whole life cycle of manufacturing, so that the oil flows back to the oil tank from the main oil cylinder of the oil pump through the oil return valve, so as to maximize the efficiency and efficiency of the manufacturing process. Digital factory is a brand-new production mode that minimizes the waste in the whole process of manufacturing, including thinking, operation and logistics. The key to this description of digital factory is to pull the digital factory back from the virtual world to the real world

the key points of identifying digital chemical plants are:

◆ a foundation: digital 3D product model and definition

◆ three elements

digital definition and optimization of technological process, technological equipment, factory layout and operation instructions, namely the so-called "digital factory", which are completely carried out in the virtual world. These are the transmission and communication of

digital production instructions and operation instructions to operators, It is the transformation from virtual information to the real world, and it is the human-computer interaction in the digital factory