Abstract
Flexible fixturing is an important issue in flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) and computer-integrated manufacturing systems (CIMS). Application of modular fixture systems is a solution of flexible fixturing. One difficulty in applying modular fixtures is the complexity of their design and assembly. This paper presents a group technology (GT) based computer-aided design (CAD) system for modular fixture designs. A new coding system with fixturing information is proposed for identifying fixturing features of the pan. Based on the concept of GT, a fixture design database is developed to acquire and accumulate expert knowledge, and to retrieve the fixture designs made by experienced people for a new fixture design. A user fixture component database can be used to generate fixture designs and a graphics output including a fixture component list. Compared with other fixturing CAD systems in literature, this is an application-oriented CAD system for industry, which can be used to deal with complex fixturing problems. In this paper, GT based identifications of fixture features are emphasized, and the structure of the computer-aided fixture design system is introduced. An implementation example is presented.
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