A novel fixturing system for complex shaped components

Abstract

Many components used in the aerospace industry are complex shaped components, without symmetric axes and parallel surfaces. During fabrication and repair, these components require fixing for processes such as drilling, surface finishing, inspections and assembly operations in terms of locating, holding or supporting. The pin type fixturing system is the predominant design used in such applications to fix complex shaped components. In the pin type fixturing systems, force is applied to a single point of contact. This increases the pressure applied to the work piece leading to surface and structural damage. This reduces the applicable clamping force and the increases the possibility of slipping. This paper describes a fixturing system to address these problems by developing a distributed force fixing method compliant to complex shapes. The proposed fixturing system is based on jamming granular materials using negative pressure. Series of experiments were carried out to decide the best suited granular material in terms of highest holding force with best adaptability to a given complex surface. According to the experimental results, the proposed system successfully provides required holding forces to fix complex shaped components.