Small quantities, large structures and high safety requirements are the special features of the aviation industry that limit the efficiency of production and maintenance. Since 2010, the Institute of Aircraft Production Technology (IFPT) at TU Hamburg has therefore been focusing its research on robot-assisted automation and the development of intelligent, hybrid and mobile systems in the aviation sector. One of the most successful projects to date is the development of a system for the automatic crack inspection of engine combustion chambers using white light interferometry, which is now used by project partner Lufthansa Technik (LHT) under the name "AutoInspect".

Building on the project and the development team from IFPT, LHT founded the joint venture 3D.aero together with the German sensor manufacturer Pepperl+Fuchs in December 2017. "AutoInspect was the first door opener for further process automation at Lufthansa Technik," says Dr. Tomas Domaschke today. As a former research assistant at the IFPT, he was one of the founders of 3D.aero. "We succeeded in developing a technology that digitally maps the entire geometry of engine components, including complex damage detection in the micrometer range."

Under the name "Shop Floor Robotics", the Hamburg-based company now also offers automation solutions with collaborative robots to optimize production, assembly and logistics processes. With "Mobile MRO Tools", 3D.aero has created mobile inspection solutions with applications ranging from flexible damage detection and classification on a tablet to the inspection of hard-to-reach areas using high-resolution and miniaturized camera systems.

As numerous research and industry projects have allowed the team to grow significantly over the last few years, a second, larger main site was only opened in Hamburg Innovation Port in February 2020 in addition to the site at the Center for Applied Aeronautical Research in Hamburg (ZAL). With the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting recession in the aviation industry, research projects from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy's aviation research program (LuFo) once again became more of a focus for 3D.aero. "In a recently commissioned LuFo project, the team will be working on the next development stage of white light interferometry, so-called line interferometry," reports Michael Ernst, one of the founders of 3D.aero alongside Tomas Domaschke and Sönke Bahr. As in many research projects, the company is also relying on intensive collaboration with the IFPT. Because, according to Ernst: "University research and technology transfer are essential for the seamless implementation of an aviation automation solution, from the foundation to the application."

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thorsten Schüppstuhl, Head of the IFPT, is delighted with the good networking. "By working with 3D.aero, we can see our research results through to market maturity and make them available to a wider customer base." For the IFPT and 3D.aero, this does not lie exclusively in aviation. The application fields of large structures, small series, lightweight construction and long service life also include wind turbine manufacturers, shipbuilding, the automotive industry and medical technology. Despite the challenging times, it is still possible to develop automation concepts for the future and drive digitalization a step further. And its importance for the aviation industry is currently greater than ever. D. Kotlerova, M. Ernst, J.-E. Rath/as