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BAE Systems F-35 Lightning – Aerospace Production Line Handling

Aerospace, Nuclear & Defence

The Challenge

As a principal partner in the F-35 Lightning project, BAE Systems manufactures the rear fuselage and tail of the fighter jet in their Samlesbury plant. With a production volume target of over 3,000 planes, BAE Systems needed to increase output from one plane a week, to one a day.

Partially assembled components were being moved manually around the plant on trolleys at floor level, an inefficient use of space and a slow labour-intensive process. Adopting the latest automated assembly line thinking and technology would be key to reaching the new target.

The Solution

SCX created a first-of-a-kind, automotive-inspired production line handling solution that transfers components via 38 trolleys on a monorail high above the factory floor. The solution enables the fast transfer of trolleys between workstations, where semi-automated hoists lower the component cradles to floor level.

SCX also engineered the steel supporting structure, gantry interface cranes and the trolley hoists with their semi-automated cradles. The system is fully integrated – as each stage is completed, the cradle is hoisted back up and the entire assembly line moves on to the next stage of production.

Riding the monorail

The complex steelwork structure is floormounted and winds around the entire facility, providing essential support for the monorail circuit, trolley hoists and gantry interface cranes
SCX engineered all horizontal and vertical moving elements of the production line, from the monorail trolleys to the chain hoists to the component cradles
Systems integration and automation was achieved through a bespoke EC&I scheme from SCX, keeping all 38 trolleys in safe, constant motion

Gantry interface cranes

The production line’s three gantry interface cranes share the same 8-metre span, 7.6-metre long rails, with various predefined stopping and parking positions to avoid clashes
The cranes transfer loads between different sections of the monorail, with a maximum speed of 10m/min
Alignment with the stopping and parking positions is repeatable to an accuracy of ±1mm, ensuring smooth transitions to the monorail

Trolley hoists and cradles

With a 4-metre height of lift and a load capacity of 6 tonnes, the trolley hoists traverse the monorail at a maximum speed of 8m/min
The trolley carries valuable component cradles to the workstations, where an HMI panel controls chain hoists to lower the cradles to a pre-determined height
The chain hoist has custom sprockets for smooth, precise and powerful lifting, and over-raise and over-lower protection for safety and reliability

Let's talk more about aerospace production line handling

Production lines rely on efficiency, reliability and repeatability. Designing a system to realise those benefits is not straightforward and requires a level of full system thinking and integration that is rarely (if ever) found in commercial-off-the-shelf lifting equipment.

We have decades of experience in delivering innovative, reliable and safe mechanical handling solutions. Talk to us today.

Call us on +44 114 262 6199, email us at info@scx.co.uk, or complete the contact form below and we'll be in touch.

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