Kuka Systems Aerospace has received the American Helicopter Society International's supplier excellence award for a new palletized assembly process it developed in conjunction with Bell Helicopter for the 525 Relentless medium twin. The process uses a major fixture that moves along the different assembly stations, with tooling added or removed from the fixture at each station as required.

Traditional assembly uses multiple dedicated fixtures for individual components as they are added to the progressive aircraft buildup. Kuka noted that employing multiple fixtures can produce tolerance and variation issues, requiring ad hoc adjustments to force out-of-contour or misaligned components into place.

Kuka maintains that the palletized assembly method improves overall quality by promoting specialization and repeatability, thereby yielding more precision and less variability. “The mating of components and ultimately entire sections is simplified. Everything tends to fit the first time. The result is a smoother, faster flow, with more efficient use of manpower,” the company said. Bell still expects to fly the 525 before the end of next month.