Computer‐aided fixture design verification

Abstract

This study presents Computer-Aided Fixture Design Verification (CAFDV)-the methods and implementations to define, measure and optimize the quality of fixture designs. CAFDV verifies a fixture for its locating performance, machining surface accuracy, stability, and surface accessibility. CAFDV also optimizes a fixture for its locator layout design, initial clamping forces, and tolerance specification. The demand for CAFDV came from both fixture design engineers and today's supply chain managers. They need such a tool to inform them the quality of a fixture design, and to find potential problems before it is actually manufactured. For supply chain managers, they will also be able to quantitatively measure and control the product quality from vendors, with even little fixture design knowledge. CAFDV uses two models-one geometric and one kinetic-to represent, verify and optimize fixture designs. The geometric model uses the Jacobian Matrix to establish the relationship between workpiece-fixture displacements, and the kinetic model uses the Fixture Stiffness Matrix to link external forces with fixture deformation and workpiece displacement. Computer software for CAFDV has also been developed and integrated with CAD package I-DEAS. CAD integration and a friendly graphic user interface allows the user to have easy interactions with 3D models and visual feedback from analysis results.

Recent Developments on Computer Aided Fixture Design: Case Based Reasoning Approaches

“…For instance, during the fixture planning step, fixturing requirements are typically generated which can be grouped into six classes as mentioned above [13]. Fixture planning focuses on determining precise location and clamping of workpieces according to a part design and process requirements.…”

“…It also involves providing relevant suggestions for the design improvement [11,13,15]. Verifying a fixture design must be done due to these arguments: (1) the design process involves many factors and thus it is not easy to implement proper models of analysis of the process; (2) the constraints of design are individually considered; some constraints that are contradictory could appear as a result of being regarded together; and (3) the design of the fixture is closely linked to other activities in a manufacturing system such as CAM and computer aided process planning (CAPP) [2].…”

A Study on Data Exchange Method in Food Packaging CAD System

“…According to [11] always compete, operators or manufacturers must be prepared to challenge for shortening product development time, improving product quality and reducing production costs. [12] states in a competitive world in the 21st century, companies need to aggressively improve the way their product development.…”

Development of a Digital Machining Information Model to Support a Real-Virtual Machining System

“…For the fixture model, two fixture models, geometric and kinetic, are proposed to describe the fixture-workpiece relationships (5)(6) . Also, the computer-aided fixture design verification (CAFDV) system that verifies the quality of a fixture design is proposed.…”