The production facilities at KnAAPO have undergone a major upgrade with the latest manufacturing technology to handle its role in the SSJ programme.
While some Russian-sourced equipment has been suitable for the advanced production techniques introduced for the SSJ, a significant amount of the upgrade has come from the West. This includes two French "Forest Line V-Star" machine tools as well as automatic riveting machines supplied by Germany's Brotje-Automation, which were designed and built specifically for KnAAPO. These devices promise a significant reduction in the labour required to make an airframe, and the SSJ will be the first Russian aircraft produced largely with automated riveting, although hand riveting will still be used for the joints/seams connecting one subassembly to another. The assembly line will use the latest "jigless assembling and aligning" technology using lasers for the mating of sections throughout the SSJ production cycle.
Source: Flight International
