Flexible Assembly System for Airbus Production

Some 50 per cent of an airframe's production cost results from the process of joining components. Of that percentage about 90 per cent is the cost of inserting the rivets, the remainder being the value of the rivets themselves. The importance of economy in riveting aircraft structure is indicated by the fact that, despite the wide use of adhesive bonding, there are more than one million rivet joints in the Airbus A 300.