Vibration drilling for improved hole quality of multi-material in the aerospace industry

Important results from the project

The purpose and goal of the project was to develop a new version of the drilling unit. Controller of the unit was also developed and packaged in an industrial way. The controller of the unit is now also fully integrated and uses industry standards in the form of communication between the drilling control and the robot´s control cabinet. The drilling unit is able to drill stacked material, Crfp-alu, Crfp-Ti with good results. The drilling unit is capable of changing feed, speed, amplitude and frequency can be adjusted freely from each other and completely adapted to the material being drilled

Expected long term effects

The project resulted in what was intended, a better new version of the drilling unit than what existed before. There is still no other similar machine on the market with the same function and setting options. With such good results and the interest, it became in the project during b.la. the final demonstrator, the next step is to begin the industrialization of the technology in order to be able to offer the technology to identified end customers within e.g., the aviation industry.

Approach and implementation

The project went well except for a few delays in the beginning due to long delivery times and disruptions linked to the then ongoing pandemic. The final phase of the project went well, the equipment was delivered and installed on the test bed Compraser Labs in Linköping which is operated by RISE. Being able to test equipment first on a partner´s bench (VibiCore) and then be able to verify functionality in a large robot that is similar to the imaginary setup that an imaginary end customer could use gives the project a good breadth and relevance.