This paper deals with issues about Orbital drilling implementation and evaluation. The paper summarizes and includes the so far written papers about Orbital drilling.
In a previous paper, a conclusion was made, orbital drilling is a suitable method for drilling high quality holes in the specific space application that was studied. The conclusion for further development was then to look more specifically into the process development, i.e. cutting parameters, new cutters, new coatings on cutters etc.
Then the investigation and feasibility study started. The project went from early prestudy to fully implemented industrialized solution of the PODU at SAAB Ericsson Space (SES) in Linköping, Sweden. More detailed description on how the project did it is explained in the paper.
The early conclusions made after pre- and final acceptance tests of the PODU at SES shows that Orbital drilling is a comprehensive method compared to conventionally drilling methods. Today the Orbital drilling method is a certified production process at SES.
Another part of this paper deals with issues about evaluation and the possibility to integrate Orbital drilling units on standardized industrial robots (IRB). The questions are why they are of interest and how they can reduce the extensive use and cost of hard or dedicated tooling, i.e. drill jigs and templates.