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.
Vacuum lifting beam
Removing protective material from completed A380 wing skin section
