Future Automated Aerospace Assembly Demonstrator Phase 2 (FA3D2) Concept Tender - AWARD

The Centre for Aerospace Manufacturing (CAM) at the University Of Nottingham (UoN) works with partners from across the UK and European aerospace industry to deliver industrially focused research into aerospace assembly systems.

Advanced manufacturing is a key research priority area for Nottingham and the University has invested significantly in this research. The University made a strategic investment in automated assembly infrastructure through the Future Automated Aerospace Assembly Demonstrator (FA3D) project, which was commissioned in 2016. Based on the success of this project, funding has been secured from the UK Government's Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) through the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) for development of the second phase of this demonstrator.

The Future Automated Aerospace Assembly Demonstrator Phase 2 (FA3D2) will deliver a national experimental testbed and technology demonstrator in digital and informatics enabled aerospace manufacturing technology. It provides an opportunity for UK based aerospace manufacturing businesses to test, demonstrate and accelerate the implementation of novel breakthrough technologies, thus allowing them to compete on productivity, quality and cost with rival offshore businesses.

The demonstrator aims to reduce the non-recurring costs of a product line by implementing a flexible assembly approach. A key feature of the FA3D2 platform will be its flexibility to be reconfigured for different products and assembly processes. This applies to both the physical reconfiguration of equipment and tooling, and also the digital integration architecture. The platform shall be designed to be extensible such that tooling, end effectors, robots etc. may be added in future with minimal disruption to the existing system i.e. a 'plug and produce' approach.