Abstract: Digital measurement assisted aircraft assembly technology is a key technology for implementing the digital coordination of assembly relationships and improving assembly precision and efficiency. The assembly process which is based on digital measurement relies on the data produced in product design, process design, manufacturing, component assembly and other stages. Therefore, unified data model construction and implementation of data association and mapping among the various stages are the key to realizing digital measurement based assembly process monitor and quality assurance. In this paper, the concept of key measurement characteristics is proposed to map the key design and process characteristics onto measurement characteristics, and then to the key measured points in assembly. Geometrical data relationships between the key measurement characteristics are analyzed to reveal their linkage with critical components assembly relationships, and a general dimensional chain, whose nodes are the inspection data of key measurement characteristics, is constructed. By expressing mathematically the nodes, known dimensions and interesting dimensions of the chain, an inspection data model in aircraft assembly is built, and its application form in aircraft assembly quality control is discussed. Finally, a case of wing-fuselage joining is introduced to deploy the key measurement characteristics based inspection data model in the final assembly process.

Key words: key measurement characteristic, inspection data model, general dimensional chain, assembly relationship coordination, measurement assisted assembly, quality control