The aerospace sector has the most stringent quality standards in the world. The big name manufacturers and their suppliers are constantly adapting new technologies to speed up inspection while maintaining tolerances that are tighter than most other businesses. With laser trackers becoming smaller in size, not to mention price, these flexible tools are finding their way into more and more aerospace-related applications.

Laser trackers have been used in the construction of aircraft for more than 20 years, and with good reason. The ease of use, long range, and high accuracy make laser trackers a great fit for traditional aerospace applications such as jig and fixture building, part inspection, and joining large parts for final assembly. Indeed, as laser trackers have become more affordable, many suppliers and small machine shops have turned to this technology. This has allowed smaller shops to bring in more work by expanding into tighter tolerance machining. However, many facilities are also expanding their laser tracker usage into less traditional arenas.

One prominent aerospace company is realizing increased efficiencies by using the new smaller, lightweight trackers to get into places they couldn't easily reach before. Key feature measurements of vertical stabilizers are now accomplished quickly and relative to fuselage by mounting the tracker directly onto the fuselage (portable metrology indeed). Another application is bench-mounted tool measurements. Here, the operator mounts the tracker directly on a surface plate and over the tool or mold. In this manner, CAD model inspection and reverse engineering can be accomplished with no station moves. Speed, micron level accuracy, and mature metrology software drastically increases the throughput of the inspection processes.

Another aspect of modern laser trackers that is of great benefit to airplane manufacturing is the long measurement range. Many trackers can measure beyond 60 meters. One particular application at a major aerospace company involves measuring an entire 300 ft × 40 ft gantry machine with only three station moves. This gantry machine requires the utmost accuracy over a very large volume. The volume, distance, and accuracy of the laser tracker do the job in the least amount of time.

Aerospace manufacture using laser tracker (foreground)  for high-accuracy machine tool calibration.

Finally, one of the most exciting areas where laser trackers are breaking new ground is in the area of machine-tool calibration. Aerospace companies employ some of the largest machine tools in the world, which is not surprising considering flagship designs such as the Airbus A380 and Boeing Dreamliner. To maintain the required tolerances throughout the entire working area and also to increase the efficiencies of the calibrations themselves, several major aerospace companies and suppliers have been looking to laser tracker technology. New developments in laser tracker technology allow for volumetric error compensation of machine tools. With an ability to reach tighter machining tolerances and machine tool accuracy, new laser trackers are looking to reshape the world of aerospace manufacturing in the very near future.