Fraunhofer partners cut aircraft door build time

The project team replaced metals with weldable thermoplastics and redesigned processes to create a modular, fully automated assembly system.

Passenger aircraft doors, typically built by hand, have long required over 100 hours to produce. Fraunhofer IWU, Fraunhofer LBF, Airbus Helicopters and Trelleborg have demonstrated that using weldable thermoplastic carbon fibre composites instead of aluminium, titanium and thermosets can reduce this to four hours.

Modular design also played a key role. The team standardised elements like the crossbeam across door variants and created a fully automated line for common models. Manual work is now only needed to install locking mechanisms.

Fraunhofer IWU’s Dr Rayk Fritzsche says: “Together with our colleagues at Airbus, we closely analysed all door structures to adapt the geometries for automatic clamping and joining. As a result, we could reorganise and fully automate the individual assembly steps. This way, we slash the lead time to a fraction of what it used to be.”

Two redundant assembly lines allow batch production of 10 doors with automatic retooling at shift end. Output has scaled to 4,000 units per year.

IWU’s Maxi Grobis evaluated the process through simulation, balancing technical and economic factors including process complexity, system availability and operating costs. “To deliver a truly integrated solution, we analysed the entire door production and assembly process and translated it into a dynamic cost model,” she says. Her team’s approach also reduced planning time by 25 per cent.

TAVieDA was funded through Germany’s LuFo aviation research programme.