| |
|
Continued...
In hindsight, the fact that the team designing the facility was
also managing the project was essential. The A380 creep forming facility is the
first of its kind and much of the development work on the wingskins themselves
was still being carried out whilst the facility was under construction. As
designers and project managers, Bennetts was able to take any changes in
specification or detail, follow the effects through the entire process and make
adjustments as necessary. Using separate design and project management teams
would have been impossible, with specification changes inevitably leading to
delays and budget overruns.
Tooling
Nowhere was this flexibility more essential than in the creep form
tooling itself. Following initial concept studies and testing of small-scale
demonstration tools, a finalised concept was agreed in March 2002. At this
stage, the final concept had to be developed into full size tooling but without
knowing the exact shape of the finished surface that was to be produced. The
creep modelling process that would supply this information was in fact being
developed by Airbus concurrently with Bennetts work on the design of the tooling
itself. In order to deliver the manufacturing facility on schedule, the tooling
would have to be virtually complete before the final finished surface shape was
known. |
|
