Newton Labs The wingtool camera
A close-up of the rugged wing tool verification camera.

Aircraft Wing Milling Tool Verification

The camera attached to the milling tool
The wing tooling verification unit was designed and built for heavy industrial use and is not affected by metal chips or debris. The Newton camera was mounted on the tool exterior and focused through a port onto the cutting head inside.

Challenge:

Large scale aircraft plant milling systems utilize specialized cutting heads that machine operators have difficulty in identifying. The installation of a similar-looking, but incorrect, cutting heads produce erroneous parts that initially have the appearance of valid results. These errors can only be detected at a later date, just before assembly, leading to lengthy delays and expensive scrap.

Solution:

Newton developed a rugged, heavy-industrial machine vision system that was permanently mounted to the milling machines. When a new cutter was inserted, the vision system measured the tool and checked it against the machining program. The milling machine was only able to run if the correct tool was verified.

Newton Labs
Newton Labs

Technology Applied:

Pattern Matching & Verification

Location: Everett, Washington