A Production Line for Su-57 at Komsomolsk-on-Amur Plant

In order to ensure serial deliveries to the customer of the Su-57 fighters, the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Plant (KnAAZ) has started implementing a project to build a production line for the Su-57 serial production. This comes within the framework of the program for the development of the Sukhoi production system. Putting this line into operation will significantly reduce the time for many technological operations.

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The optimization of the final assembly workshops has already started at the Sukhoi plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur (as well as at the plant in Novosibirsk). This allows for reducing the assembly cycle of products by about 30%. Now the optimization has also touched upon the assembly shop.

Specialists of the aggregate assembly workshop at KnAAZ have a previous successful experience in creating a production line for the production of combat vehicles; the first project of this kind to improve the efficiency of work on the Su-35S was implemented several years ago. Today, the workshop needs to use the experience gained in the previous project in order to create a production line for the serial production of the 5th generation aircraft Su-57.

“The most important task in our production line,” explains Irina Novakovskaya, a specialist in the Sukhoi production system, “is to ensure a technological sequence of operations; efficient use of production equipment, workplaces and areas, and security".

Taking into account the design features of the Su-57 airframe, the specialists of the Chief Technologists Department proposed to divide the fuselage head part assembly into two stages: to assemble the 9th frame and the sub-cabin compartment separately. The subassemblies will be fed into the head fuselage stock, which will reduce the assembly cycle.

“All work is carried out without interruptions in production,” says Andrey Gavrilov, an assembler-riveter at the workshop. "We are provided with work, the load is evenly distributed between operations. The production line is not only "hardware", but first of all - people, each of whom feels responsible for their work. We are assembling a fifth-generation aircraft, and that says it all. "

An additional stage for assembling the air intake has already been introduced. To save time, a separate assembly slip is made for its middle part. The workshop will receive another set of air intake slipways in 2021.

The main problem that we faced in the assembly shop during the project was the lack of free space. The workshop is located between the territories of two adjacent workshops, so there is a shortage of production space for building a production line. Nevertheless, the shop management is optimistic.

“It was much more difficult on the Su-35,” says Victor Passar. "We changed the location of the sites, tried different options. Now, having experience, we know how to do it, we take into account those nuances that we did not know about before."

As part of the development of the Sukhoi production system, a project was launched to increase the area of ​​an industrial zone in the middle of the workshop to address the lack of space. The vacated areas will be given for the slipway equipment of the Su-57. The developed technical specifications are now being coordinated.

The creation of a production line for the fulfillment of the State Defence Procurement Order for the serial production of fifth-generation aircraft is today the most important task for the workers of the assembly workshop. After the completion of the installation of the second set of slipway equipment and debugging of the process, the production line will work at full capacity.

“Our employees have received the project very well. Each of the volumes collected from us is a link in a single chain, there are no secondary areas. Everything is done first of all for people so that it is more convenient for them to work,” says the head of the workshop Artem Oshchepkov.

It is expected that the first production Su-57 will enter the Armed Forces by the end of 2020. According to the contract with the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, 76 aircraft should be delivered by 2028, on which three aviation regiments will be rearmed.

Based UAC material.

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