In Hamburg, a team of leading companies in the aviation industry is developing nothing less than the future of aircraft construction. As part of the BiSconA project, another "EcoPositioner" for precise component positioning was delivered to the ZAL Centre for Applied Aviation Research. Broetje-Automation is thus already celebrating the 250th delivery of this modularised and high-precision positioning system specially developed for the aviation industry.

Together with ZAL and other partners, Broetje-Automation is working on the "BiSconA" project funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy as part of the aviation research program to develop an automated "built-in stress" -compliant joining process for aircraft fuselages that sets standards in terms of accuracy and the speed of the assembly process is set and the stress-free state of the fuselage shell is guaranteed throughout the entire assembly process. The positioning technology comes from Broetje-Automation.

Now Broetje-Automation was able to celebrate a special anniversary. 250 EcoPositioners are already in use worldwide. In addition, there are more than 150 other positioning systems from Broetje-Automation, which ensure efficient production in the aviation industry for international customers.

In addition to the delivery of positioning technology, Broetje-Automation is developing in the BiSconA project ("Built- in Stress conformal Assembly") a modular adaptive gripper system as well as a digital image of the production environment. The company implements self-learning algorithms for continuous process optimisation with a standardised control architecture and the integration of real-time capable measurement interfaces. This optimisation and simultaneous digitisation of the assembly of CFRP aircraft components significantly increase the performance and efficiency of the production processes. The project represents an important milestone on the way to the digitised factory of the future.

With the delivery of the 250th EcoPositioner as part of the project, the ZAL TechCentre has now been expanded to include the sixth horizontal positioner. Broetje-Automation delivered a test stand to the research centre back in 2016, in which the positioning systems have been further developed and optimised since then. The EcoPositioners have been part of the Rasteder company's program since 2010, after a publicly funded research project kicked off the development in 2009. In the same year, the positioners were able to convince with their first customer project in Europe. In 2011 it was launched on the Russian and Chinese markets. Since then, the EcoPositioners have firmly established themselves in the product portfolio.

With the EcoPositioner, Broetje-Automation offers a modular and reconfigurable positioning technology that guarantees maximum flexibility and product quality for aircraft assembly. Thanks to intelligent algorithms, the technology enables the compensation of mechanical and thermal influences and thus fast positioning cycles. The holistic mechatronic system combines mechanics, control and measurement technology from a single source, which further optimises system availability.

The positioning technology can thus be used for a variety of manufacturing processes, for example for the assembly of fuselage sections, the joining of sections to the fuselage or the connection of wings and tail units to the fuselage as part of final assembly.

Since 1979 Broetje-Automation has been developing innovative solutions for the automation of processes in the aerospace industry together with an entire ecosystem of partners. In the BiSconA project, Broetje-Automation is working on the factory of the future under the leadership of the ZAL Centre for Applied Aviation Research together with its partners 3D Aero, Airbus, cenit and Fraunhofer IFAM.