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Fixturing surface accessibility analysis for automated fixture design. (English) Zbl 0949.90581

Summary: Fixturing is an important manufacturing activity in the production cycle. The computer-aided fixture design (CAFD) technique has been developed and become part of CAD/CAM integration. CAFD consists of three major aspects: setup planning, fixture planning, and fixture configuration design. An automated modular fixture configuration design system has been developed and applied to industrial practice. This paper focuses on a technical problem involved in the development of automated fixture planning systems, that is, the accessibility analysis of a fixturing surface on workpiece. The fixturing surface accessibility should be correctly assessed to reflect the extent of ease to place a fixture component in contact with the fixturing surface. The objective of accessibility analysis is to help the fixture planning fulfill the optimum selection of fixturing surfaces and points on workpiece. Firstly, several basic criteria for evaluating the eligibility of a surface being a preliminary candidate fixturing surface are discussed. Secondly, by applying a discretization technique, an accessibility model of fixturing surfaces is established based on an overall evaluation of the accessibility of discrete points on the surface. Finally, the implementation issue and an analysis/design example are presented.

MSC:

90B30 Production models
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