Aerospace assembly typically involves using monolithic steel fixtures to control the form of structures, this tooling is very expensive, has long lead times and has little ability to accommodate product variation and design changes. Since the tool setting and recertification process is manual and time consuming, monolithic structures are required in order to maintain the tooling tolerances for multiple years without recertification.
Jody Muelaner has carried out research regarding methods of using state of the art measurement techniques to set tooling more accurately and to monitor any movement of tooling while in service.
