An automated design and assembly of interference-free modular fixture setup

This paper describes an automated modular fixture design system developed u sing a CAD-based methodology and implemented on a 3-D CAD/CAM software pack age. The developed automated fixture design (AFD) system automates the fixt uring points determination and is integrated on top of the previously devel oped interactive and semi-automated fixture design systems. The determinati on of fixturing points is implemented in compliance with the fixturing prin ciples that are formulated as heuristics rules to generate candidate list o f points and then select the exact points from the list. Apart from determi ning the fixturing points automatically, the system is capable of producing cutting tool collision-free fixture design using its machining interferenc e detection sub-module. The machining interference detection is accomplishe d through the use of cutter swept solid based on cutter swept volume approa ch. Therefore, using the developed AFD, an interference-free fixture design and assembly can be achieved in the possible shortest design lead-time. (C ) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.