Problem
Two end flanges must be aligned to within 250µm despite being almost 3 meters away before being epoxied onto a carbon fiber shell.
Design
Plates of aluminum MIC-6, a set of eight tooling balls to measure lengths, specific shim locations, and a lever to adjust perpendicularity from the ground were designed to physically adjust the flanges before they were fixed to the shell.
The MIC-6 was designed to be machined in one setup and to have all points be measured from the same front datum.
After the individual parts of the assembly are measured on a coordinate measurement machine, the actual positions of the tooling balls are put in an Excel spreadsheet. The spreadsheet uses a datum pin to set an origin of the flange and calculates the actual measurements that will be taken with a portable CMM.
A detailed procedure was also generated to provide technicians with the optimal method to adjust the assembly to achieve the desired parallelism.
Expected manufacturing of the parts is early 2025.
OFFICIAL DRAWINGS RELEASED WITH PERMISSION FROM LBNL
