Airbus A400M CAWDE

The CAWDE machine features include:
• Fully automatic CNC control and data collection
• 5-axis positioning within the entire wing skin envelope, 30m x 5m x 1m
• Machine transporter to move the machine from jig to jig
• Servomotor/ballscrew joint pressure from 900-9000N (approx 200-2000lbf) during drilling and fastening
• Drilling and countersinking holes for 1/4” to 3/4” diameter bolts through multi material stacks of carbon fiber, aluminum, and titanium
• Automated hole diameter measurement of 1/4” to 5/8” diameter holes
• Automatic detection of manually installed slave bolts prior to drilling
• Automatic insertion of 1/4” to 5/8” diameter slave dowels for temporary fasteing during the build
• Space on the process shuttle table for a future process tool

The drilling process is supported by though-bit and external flood coolant systems and chip vacuum with coolant recovery.

The machine is equipped with sensors and synchronization tools to help align the machine with varying geometry components. These include:
• Normality Sensors: Sensors track the surface of the wing skin and provide feedback so the machine’s CNC can position the head normal to the actual surface
• Resync Camera: A video image is displayed for manual resynchronization
• Renishaw Touch Probe: A radio-frequency probe fits in the drill spindle and software routines allow the machine to find the center of holes, the z position of a pad, or the edge of a part with this tool
• Thru Skin Sensor: This sensor looks through the wing skin and finds the center of the magnetic field of magnets that are placed in pre-drilled pilot holes in the wing structure behind the wing skin