Core point of view: considering that the company's mid-2021 report exceeded expectations and the prospect of assembly business was good, the operating income in 2021-2023 was adjusted from 501 million yuan, 752 million yuan and 1.09 billion yuan to 532 million yuan, 797 million yuan and 1.116 billion yuan, and the net profit of returning mother was adjusted from 232,334 million yuan and 466 million yuan to 252,372 million yuan and 516 million yuan. Maintain the buy rating.
Aircraft manufacturing refers to the process of manufacturing aircraft according to design requirements, which usually only includes the manufacture of aircraft body parts, assembly and assembly, and so on.
On the other hand, power plants, airborne equipment, hydraulic systems, control systems, instruments and accessories are manufactured by specialized manufacturers and are generally not included in the scope of aircraft manufacturing.
However, the installation of them as finished products on the aircraft, the connection with other systems, the laying of cables and ducts, and the functional debugging of each system are all the work of the general assembly and an integral part of aircraft manufacturing.
The main processes of aircraft manufacturing include process preparation (including process equipment design and manufacturing), parts manufacturing (including forging blank preparation, precision machining, sheet metal parts forming, special process treatment, non-metallic material processing, etc.), part assembly, general assembly and debugging, etc.
The airframe of the aircraft is composed of hundreds of thousands or even millions of parts. according to the requirements of use function, maintenance and repair, convenient transportation and so on, the designer divides the whole aircraft into many parts, for example, the flaps and ailerons are divided into independent parts because of the relative motion on the wing; the fighter plane divides the fuselage into two parts: the front fuselage and the rear fuselage for easy maintenance and replacement of the engine at the rear of the fuselage. The wings of the passenger plane are designed as separate parts for ease of transportation.
In the process of assembly, in order to meet the needs of production, the aircraft structure is further divided, that is, the parts are divided into segments, and the segments are further divided into components and panels. After the parts are divided into segments, parallel assembly surfaces are added, which can shorten the assembly cycle, reduce the number of assembly shelves for complex parts, and improve the openness of assembly work; after the parts are further divided into components and plate parts, it creates conditions for improving the degree of mechanization and automation of assembly work.
According to the principle of aircraft size exchange and coordination, aircraft assembly uses special process equipment, measuring equipment and other equipment to carry out a large number of aircraft parts, standard parts and finished products according to drawings or full three-dimensional models and technical conditions. the process of riveting assembly, system installation, debugging and flight test of the body structure according to a certain order and method. The aircraft has a complex structure, a large number of parts and connectors, small stiffness and high quality requirements, so aircraft assembly has the characteristics of large workload and long cycle. According to statistics, the aircraft assembly workload accounts for 45%, 60%, and 75% of the total aircraft manufacturing workload. The assembly cycle accounts for 50% and 75% of the production cycle of the whole machine.
Component assembly is a process from parts to components, plates, segments and components. take wing assembly as an example, the assembly process is as follows: the front beam is assembled into components by the front beam fixture, and the front beam, front rib and front skin are assembled into the front section of the wing by the front section frame of the wing, and then the front segment, rear section and other parts and components of the wing are assembled on the wing assembly rack to form the wing.
To put it simply, the main step of assembly is positioning and connection. Assembly positioning refers to determining the relative position of parts, components, plates and segments according to the requirements of drawings and design. the commonly used positioning methods are marking positioning method, assembly hole positioning method, frame positioning method, reference part positioning method and so on. The main ways of assembly connection are riveting, bolting, bonding, welding and so on. The connection quality directly affects the anti-fatigue performance and reliability of aircraft structure, and is an important link in the process of aircraft manufacturing. Assembly enterprises need to plan reasonable positioning methods, connection methods and process parameters to ensure accurate, reliable and stable assembly.
At the technical level, the modern technical equipment of assembly positioning include flexible assembly positioning system, manipulator alignment parts positioning equipment, laser tracker auxiliary positioning system, wall panel assembly line positioning system and so on; the modern technical equipment connected by assembly include numerical control drilling and riveting machine and interference riveting, high pressure water drilling system, computer aided drilling system, digital simulation assembly and robot automatic assembly, etc. Generally speaking, aircraft assembly is developing in the direction of digitalization, flexibility, informatization, modularization and automation. Manual assembly method is adopted as far as possible in single or small production (prototype machine, verification machine and small batch trial production stage). In mass production (volume stage), we need to improve the level of automation as much as possible.
At the management level, aircraft assembly has the characteristics of complex assembly process, large number of parts, high assembly quality and precision requirements, so it needs reliable quality management and perfect guarantee system as support. it is best to have the whole process management ability of "NC precision machining, special process processing, component assembly".
At the level of qualification, with the substantial growth of aircraft demand, the mainframe factory is changing to the mode of "supply chain management + general assembly integration", and the assembly of parts is gradually released to supporting units. however, the assembly extension belongs to the "limited opening" for some high-quality private enterprises, such as a mainframe factory only designates four component assembly units, this "limited opening" builds the qualification barrier of this business.
Closely centering on the main industry of aviation parts manufacturing, Aileda insists on focusing on the high-end links of the industrial value chain, and actively promotes the implementation of the whole process strategic planning of "CNC precision machining, special process processing, and component assembly". Since 2017, the company has established component assembly, during which it has carried out the assembly business of a certain type of UAV, a certain type of military aircraft, as well as a number of civilian aircraft components and components, such as PCU (Power Control Unit, power control components for elevator / rudder, etc.) assembly and so on.
As one of the four assembly units determined by a mainframe factory, the company focuses on cultivating the assembly capacity of large components in 2020, and actively promotes the construction of the whole process management capacity of component assembly. Through the guidance of professional and technical mentors and practical training in the main engine factory, the company strives to strengthen the skills training of assembly professionals, constantly improve the assembly management system, improve the assembly workshop site, and increase the equipment of assembly facilities. Obtain the assembly qualification of the mainframe factory, obtain the assembly order of the large parts of the fuselage of a certain type of UAV, and obtain the matching assembly task of the front fuselage, middle fuselage and rear fuselage of the model, and realize the transformation and upgrade of the whole process capability from parts to small components and then to large parts.
At present, the company has completed the expansion of the UAV field from small component assembly to large component assembly, and the next step will complete the expansion from the UAV field to the aircraft field in the large component assembly.
Considering that the company's mid-2021 report exceeded expectations and the prospect of assembly business was good, the operating income in 2021-2023 was adjusted from 501 million yuan, 752 million yuan and 1.09 billion yuan to 532 million yuan, 797 million yuan and 1.116 billion yuan, and the net profit of returning mother was adjusted from 232,334,466 million yuan to 252 million yuan, 372 million yuan and 516 million yuan. Maintain the buy rating.
Risk hint: there is a risk that the progress of the expansion of component assembly business from the field of drones to the field of owned aircraft is not as good as expected.