Revolution in Aviation: Production of the Multifunctional Fuselage Demonstrator (MFFD)

We proudly present the summary from the manufacturing and assembly processes of the all-thermoplastic #MFFD upper shell. The Upper-Shell was built together with our dear partners Aernnova, Premium Aerotec and Airbus. We would like to thank everyone involved, without whose continuous motivation, inspiration and team spirit this success would not have been possible. These are the key facts of the demonstrator: In-Situ consolidated lay-up of the skin (53 km tape placed in total) Production of 44 compression molded Z-stringers by Aernnova Robot-based ultrasonic spot welding of stringers for pre-fixation, each 500 mm World`s first fully automated, robot-based continuous ultrasonic welding of 44 stringers Production of 24 compression molded C-frames and loose parts by Premium Aerotec Automated integration of 24 frames by resistance welding (~300 welds) Automated integration of 12 frame-couplings by resistance welding Automated integration of ~158 cleats by cobot-based resistance welding (~316 welds) Partner: https://www.aernnova.com/ https://www.premium-aerotec.com/ https://www.airbus.com/ The Multifunctional Fuselage Demonstrator (MFFD) was developed as part of the Large Passenger Aircraft project and funded by the European Clean Sky-2 program. https://www.clean-aviation.eu/clean-s... Funding: This project has received funding from the Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking (CAJU) under grant agreement CS2-LPA-GAM-2020-2023-01. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. More Information: https://www.dlr.de/en/bt/research-tra...