The use of fiber-metal laminates (FML) allows for substantial advantages over a fuselage skin made of monolithic aluminum materials. Glass fiber prepreg reinforced aluminium is characterized by high damage tolerance capabilities, supporting the structural strength capability in case of any kind of damage. For this reason, FML, and GLARE in particular, have been identified as superior materials for aerospace applications. More than 400m2 FML is applied on each A380, as skin panels and as D-noses for both, vertical and horizontal stabilizer. FML possess the potential to become the baseline material for next-generation single-aisle aircrafts [1, 2, 6].The development of a new production chain that will allow automated fuselage production for future short-haul aircrafts is the focus of the studies that make up the joint project AUTOGLARE. As part of the fifth call-up for the German Aeronautical Research Programme (LuFo), the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is working with its project partners Airbus Operations, Premium Aerotech (PAG) and the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft (FhG). The development of a production chain for stiffened fuselage panels made of Fiber metal Laminates should support a production rate of 60 aircraft per month [3].This study contains the research work of the DLR and FhG regarding the automated and quality assured process for chain stiffened FML fuselages. In addition to a detailed explanation of the systems that were set up, this paper covers the planned tests, the completed demonstration models and the findings derived from them.

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A new concept for autoclave process control is being presented, which is currently developed in the DLR's (German Aerospace Centre) project OnQA (Online quality Assurance in Autoclave processing) in the new Centre for Lightweight-Production-Technology in Stade. The concept is based on sensors obtaining quality-relevant process parameters and a real time process simulation able to predict multiple scenarios of different control strategies. The so called MASTERBOX is the centre piece of this new process control concept. It serves as interface between the sensors including the data acquisition, the process simulation and the real autoclave and takes decisions for the process control based on sensor data, simulation results and databases. This intelligent process control will be able to react to process and product deviations leading to an enormous reduction of scrap parts. Also as the process is controlled directly in function of the product's qualitydevelopment, the process time can be reduced dramatically. Due to the fact that the quality-assurance is performed online during the process, the inline or offline part inspection could be reduced as well.

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