The Aerospace industry sits on the cutting edge of technology. The components and products developed in this industry must withstand great temperatures, pressures, and forces, all while ensuring the safety of the eventual cargo, especially human passengers. Aerospace manufacturing, therefore, demands extremely accurate build and assembly processes, resulting in equally extreme manufacturing costs and complexity performed by highly trained technicians. 

It’s that combination of high complexity, high cost, and need for accuracy that’s brought Augmented Reality technology and applications into the Aerospace industry. Augmented Reality in Aerospace is helping manufacturing teams work smarter, transfer training knowledge faster and more effectively, and increase the speed and accuracy of Aerospace manufacturing. These Augmented Reality solutions are driving time and cost savings that reach into the 90% range — and higher! 

For example, Lockheed Martin is using our Augmented Reality in Aerospace vehicles, which can contain thousands of miles of electrical and communication wiring. This then requires hundreds or thousands of fasteners and clips, all with precise attachment points. The process for simply marking the location of these attachment points can take weeks, not to mention the prerequisite training. 

We have reduced an eight hour activity to 45 min. An eight shift activity was completed in 6 hours. And with multiple shop floor activities since 2017, would you believe that not a single error has occurred while AR has been in use!?

Shelley Peterson, Lockheed Martin Space

Lockheed  Martin is using our Augmented Reality technology to enable both faster and more accurate location of the attachment points. The result? A process that originally required 8 shifts and 2 technicians was reduced, using AR, to just 2.5 hours and a single technician. That’s a touch labor savings of 93%.

Augmented Reality in Aerospace is also reducing the training time for technicians. In a specific drilling application, Augmented Reality lessened ramp-up times by 85%. In another application, our Augmented Reality platform is enabling Aerospace technicians to determine if wiring harnesses are positioned correctly, even after the engine is installed on the aircraft wing. Our Augmented Reality software is also helping speed knowledge transfer and reduce work interruptions by putting contextual information in the technician’s field of view. In an actual scenario, the time to complete an Aerospace torque application process was reduced from 6 weeks to 2 weeks for an ultimate touch labor savings of 50%. 

Augmented Reality in Aerospace is helping speed manufacturing processes, even in highly complex applications that used to require extensive ramp-up times. By placing the required information on work surfaces or overlayed on components, technicians can be more efficient and more accurate even with less training. This increased accuracy of Augmented Reality applications then reduces risk, increases safety, and lowers the overall cost of production. 

The complexity inherent in Aerospace manufacturing is ideally suited for Augmented Reality solutions, and Scope AR is ideally suited for your Aerospace applications.

To learn more, read The Ultimate Guide to Enterprise AR ebook

Augmented Reality in Aerospace