BOEING, IN CONJUNCTION WITH MSFC, HAS ACCOMPLISHED, ON SPACE STATION FREEDOM, WHAT IS BELIEVED TO BE AN INDUSTRY FIRST BY ESTABLISHING A PRODUCTION VPPA ROBOT WORK CELL, INCORPORATING A VPPAW SYSTEM WITH EIGHT-AXES OF MOTION UNDER AUTOMATIC WELD CONTROL. VPPA WELDING OF COMPLICATED, THREE-DIMENSIONAL JOINT CONFIGURATIONS IS AN ADVANCEMENT THAT COULD FURTHER APPLICATIONS OF THE PROCESS INTO AREAS THAT WOULD OTHERWISE NOT BE CONSIDERED. THE SSFP STRUCTURE WILL BE CONSTRUCTED OF 2219 ALUMINUM USING THE COMPUTER-CONTROLLED VARIABLE POLARITY PLASMA ARC WELD (VPPAW) PROCESS. THE ROBOT-CONTROLLED SYSTEM IS PROGRAMMED TO MAINTAIN TORCH CENTER POINT (TCP) ORIENTATION PERPENDICULAR TO THE PART WHILE THE POSITIONER IS TILTED AND ROTATED TO MAINTAIN THE VERTICAL-UP ORIENTATION REQUIRED BY THE VPPAW PROCESS.
| Number of Pages : | 9 |
| Published : | 06/01/1992 |
