The experimental test and FEA of a PKM (Exechon) in a flexible fixture application for aircraft wing assembly

The parallel kinematics machine (PKM) Exechon is proposed to be used in a flexible fixture for aircraft wing assembly. The analysis and tests are required to determine the capability of the proposed fixturing solution. The research concern in this paper will be the static stiffness analysis of the Exechon device, which will be a very important element of flexible fixturing solution for aircraft wing assembly using parallel kinematics machines. This section will detail the experimental test of the Exechon machine´s stiffness to understand its stiffness character and to provide guidelines and validation data for Finite Element Analysis (FEA) work in developing analysis models of the Exe-chon device with more representative stiffness characters. The preliminary FEA work in solid models and beam models will also be included.