Retrofitting Gemcor Wing Riveters with Hydraulic Servos

This paper describes a project to retrofit five Gemcor Wing Riveting machines with new CNC/PLC controls, motors and drives, Pneumatic Systems, and upgrade Hydraulic Systems, and Processes. The emphasis here is in applying servo control technologies to the existing hydraulic actuators for the drill, transfer head and lower ram. Introduction of servo controls simplified the hydraulic systems by reducing component count. The servo control enabled automation that removed or reduced the need for operator input. These modifications were accomplished without the expense of replacing large mechanical components of the machine.