An automatic fixture modeling system using search strategy

Abstract

Fixtures are critical part of both traditional and modern manufacturing operations. The time allocated to the design and manufacture of these components significantly impacts production cycle time and can improve the quality of current and future products, and therefore, significant consideration is required to design fixture and their applications in manufacturing. In this article, design of an automatic modular fixture modeling system is proposed for prismatic components. The proposed system consists of fixture planning, fixture layout, and fixture assembly modules. The process and setup plans are used as input into the system. A rule-based system is developed to assign suitable locating scheme to locate and clamp datum for fixture planning phase. The search strategy is designed to select the locating and clamping points based on geometric and functional constraints. The final fixture assembly is achieved using standard fixture components and CATVBA editor using CATIA V5 as the platform. The graphical fixture database is constructed using commercial fixture components from manufacturers such as Fixture Works and Carrlane. The proposed methodology is successfully validated with multiple case studies.