New automated quality inspection system ramps up aerospace production and brings down costs 

Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division has introduced the fully automated PRESTO XL inspection cell, tailored to inspecting large aerospace components, the latest addition to its modular series of turn-key systems that can be deployed into manufacturing lines globally in 16 weeks.

The aerospace industry is under immense pressure to increase output, with demand pushing global aircraft production to increase by 20% per year from now until 2027. Airbus A320 production alone is planned to ramp up from the 48 aircraft-per-month in 2023 to 75 aircraft-per-month by 2026. This surge comes at a time when the industry is grappling with a significant skills shortage, exacerbated by early retirements during the COVID-19 pandemic and a struggle to attract young engineers.

To keep up with demand, OEMs and their supply chains will need to accelerate and align their quality and production processes. Hexagon estimates that quality represents up to 30 percent of the cost of manufacturing processes – traditional methods involving handheld scanners, manual tools and visual inspection often introduce bottlenecks and inefficiencies. Purpose-built quality inspection systems support skilled quality professionals to automate and streamline processes, reducing the inspection time for large components such as aircraft side panels by up to 50 percent and eliminating part calibration and setup tasks that diminish the value of conventional robotic systems.

Aziz Tahiri, VP Global Aerospace & Defence at Hexagon said: “The industry has no choice but to upgrade its manufacturing processes if it wants to keep up with demand. We’ve reached the limits of productivity gains from simply recruiting more people to ramp up production, but successfully automating low volume aerospace manufacturing has proven challenging due to the high-mix and scale of components. We’ve taken our metrology and manufacturing expertise and built PRESTO from the bottom up to give the experienced quality team what they need to automate inspection processes in a single cell that can be deployed quickly to ramp up production and bring down the cost of quality.”

PRESTO offers aerospace manufacturers:

• Best-in-class measurement efficiency from Hexagon’s blue line 3D laser scanning and absolute positioning technologies.
• The flexibility to adapt each cell to inspect different aircraft models and components, reprogrammable within hours by a single metrologist without robot programming knowledge.
• The ability to rapidly scan high volumes of large parts, including reflective surfaces in variable near-line lighting conditions, reliably and with short cycle times.
• Standardised measurement across fully interoperable cells that can be deployed in 16 weeks almost anywhere in the world with Hexagon support.

PRESTO System is available in a series of standardised, scalable units, initially designed to address the varying size requirements and inspection needs of mass-production automotive manufacturers. Now, its latest and largest 10m x 7.5m PRESTO XL employs two mobile trackers and two mobile scanners, expanding its range of ready-to-do applications into the aerospace industry to accommodate 3-6m long parts. It complements manual and CMM inspection processes, and is suitable for inspecting at least 50% of major aerostructure components including fuselage panels, doors, and wing ribs.

PRESTO is an attractive system for aerospace manufacturers looking to quickly implement advanced inspection capabilities without extensive customisation or setup time. It is also well-suited to MRO, where a technician with no metrology expertise can safely load and inspect parts such as engine blades quickly and reliably, without manual setup and calibration processes.

The modularity of the PRESTO System means the aviation industry can quickly deploy standardised turnkey quality inspection and connect it with existing digital systems. Once the first cell is deployed, additional modules can be added as needed with short lead times, facilitating upgrades and enhancements rather than costly replacement. The capture of standardised, high-quality data not only addresses immediate production quality assurance demands, but also enables data analysis and continuous improvement – crucial for preparing the industry for future challenges.