BELL KNOWLEDGE-BASED SYSTEM PROVIDES PRODUCIBILITY ANALYSIS AND AUTOMATED TOOL DESIGN FOR THE V-22 INTEGRATED WIRING SYSTEM

Bell and Boeing implemented new wiring design and philosophy on the V-22 Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) program. The new electrical wiring design is a modular electrical harness approach called Integrated Wiring System (IWS). IWS uses both organized, woven wire, ribbon harnesses and conventional overbraided, branched (spider) harnesses. The ribbon harnesses serve as major circuit carriers throughout the aircraft and the conventional harnesses provide circuit connection to electrical devices. Bell designs both harnesses using a complete electronic mockup of the aircraft in CATIA, which allows the designer to route and install the harness to the constraints of the aircraft. The use of the electronic mockup results in a 3D electrical harness model properly installed in the aircraft. However, former producibility, manufacturing, and tooling systems did not take advantage of this electronic 3D model data. To resolve this, Bell initiated a project to develop a computerized knowledge-based system. This system analyzes all IWS harness models to provide producibility guidance to the designer. After analysis, the system flattens the conventional IWS harnesses from the 3D CATIA model for engineering, tooling, and manufacturing needs.