Precision drill team New 767 tool is fast and accurate—and critical to meeting Boeing tanker deadlines By Kymberly VanDlac and photos by Bob Ferguson 18 BOEING FRONTIERS / OCTOBER 2013 Dwarfed by hundreds of tons of hulking machinery, Glenn Huckabay sat at the controls of the 767 program’s sixthgeneration Automated Spar Assembly Tool and proceeded to make short work of a very long wing spar. Using the advanced software of the ASAT6, as the new tool is called, Huckabay guided an automated carriage along an 82-foot (25-meter) spar, drilling and installing wing fasteners at rates that were once unimaginable. “This machine is a dream come true,” said Huckabay, who spent 14 years working the early-model tooling the ASAT6 has replaced. “Not only is this machine 50 percent faster, it cleans as it goes, picking up 90 percent of its own debris.” One of the Everett, Wash., site’s newest and most sophisticated pieces of tooling, the ASAT6 is critical to meeting production deadlines on the KC-46A aerial refueling tanker, which is based on the 767 commercial airframe. The first tanker is on track to deliver to the U.S. Air Force in 2016, with a total of 18 tankers to be delivered by year-end 2017, according to tanker program executives. “It gives us the ability to meet the high expectations of the U.S. Air Force,” ASAT operator Keith Jacobsen said of the latestgeneration tooling. “Maintaining quality is essential. It electronically tests every hole for accuracy while at the same time rejecting any misshapen or misaligned fasteners.” In the early 1980s, Boeing installed the first generation of the tool, the ASAT1, to streamline production of its new line of 767 commercial jets. Digital technology was just starting to blossom. At a time when Pac-Man ruled the video arcade and desktop PCs were still a novelty in American households, ASAT1 was a technological marvel. But 30 years and 1,000-plus airplanes later, it was sorely outdated. “It was superior for the day, but now it is old technology,” maintenance technician Arthur Peterson said of the ASAT1. “The parts and software from 30 years ago are no longer readily available. When the machine breaks down, in some cases it takes days to fix, putting production behind schedule.” By 2011, the need to replace ASAT1 had become pressing. With the tanker contract in place and several back-to-back freighter orders secured, Boeing Commercial Airplanes
Frontiers October 2013 Issue
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