International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 4, Issue 2, February-2013 1

ISSN 2229-5518

Design & Development of Fixture for CNC –

Reviews, Practices & Future Directions
N. P. Maniar, D. P. Vakharia

Abstract—Various areas related to design of fixture are already been very well described by various renowned authors. This section
reviews some of the developments in fixture design and proposes directions for future research initiatives.

Index Terms— Fixture, Design, CNC, Computer Aided Fixture Design, Modular Fixtures, Dedicated Fixtures, Flexible Mechanical Fixtures

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1 INTRODUCTION
The machine tool industry has undergone sufficient changes several manuals on jig and fixture design such as Houghton
as the requirement of user engineering systems changed; first (1956) and Wilson (1962). Henriksen (1973) considered many
it started with the manufacture of basic general purpose ma- features of fixture design, and Boyes (1989) assembled a hand-
chine tools. These machines though offered higher flexibility book that contained a set of guidelines for analytical design.
were not suitable for mass production owing to longer set up Comprehensive research on fixturing systems probably did
times and the tedious adjustments of machine and tools be- not begin until Imhof and Grahl (1977).
sides requiring highly skilled operators. With growing need of Although fixturing contributes significantly to overall
fast production to meet the requirements of industry, mass manufacturing cost, it is sometimes neglected for the reason of
production machines are conceived. Hydraulic, tracer control cost reduction. The design and manufacture of fixtures can be
machine tool, special purpose automatic and semi automatic time consuming, and it increases the manufacturing cycle time
machines were introduced with the advancement of technolo- of any product that needs machining and/or assembly. The
gy. These machines were highly specialized but inflexible. The main reason is that fixtures are designed to tight tolerances,
use of these machines was with a success for mass production typically 30-50% of the overall workpiece tolerance. In addi-
and they have considerably reduced the production costs by tion, since most fixtures are made of hardened steel, the kinds
way of reduced machining times and labor costs. Because of of machining operations that can be used for their manufac-
inflexibility these machine tools could not however be adopt- ture are constrained (Bidanda and Muralikrishnan 1992, Kusi-
ed by units involved in small lot and piece production. Be- ak 1993).
cause of the above, great need is felt for tools that could bridge
the gap between highly flexible general purpose machine tools 2.1 Basic Requirement of Fixture
(which are not economical for mass production) and highly The basic requirement of a fixture is to locate and secure the
specialized, but inflexible mass production machines. Numeri- workpiece in the correct orientation and relationship so the
cal control machine tools with proper fixture set up have to manufacturing process can be carried out according to design
take up this role very well. specifications (Nee and Kumar 1991). A typical fixture for
The fixture designing and manufacturing is considered as prismatic parts consists of three components: locators, clamps,
complex process that demands the knowledge of different are- and supporters. Locators are used to position the workpiece in
as, such as geometry, tolerances, dimensions, procedures and static equilibrium thus removing all degrees of freedom.
manufacturing processes. While designing this review work, a Clamps are for holding the workpiece firmly against the
good number of literature and titles written on the subject by locators during machining for rigidity. The external cutting
renowned authors are referred. All findings and conclusions forces and tool direction are the major considerations.
obtained from the literature review and the interaction with Additional support is added to reinforce the stability of the
fixture designers are used as guide to develop the present re- workpiece. The use of these fixturing elements can be
search work. determined manually or analytically.
Since the workpiece is subjected to the external cutting
2 FIXTURE STUDIES forces of machining, the three above fixture elements must
make sure that the workpiece is positively located, is rigid,
Studies in fixturing began in the 1940's. The results lead to and assures repeatability. Repeatability refers to the workpiece
———————————————— and subsequent workpieces can be located by the fixture in
 N. P. Maniar is Research Scholar in Mechanical engineering in precisely the same place. This activity is considered a 'set-up'
Dharmsinh DesaiUniversity, Nadiad, India. E-mail: nirav- in manufacturing.
[email protected] To make sure the workpiece maintains the dimensional
 D. P. Vakaharia is currently working as Professor in Mechanical Engi-
neering Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat, India.. specifications and tolerances, the external cutting forces must
E-mail: [email protected] be resisted by the fixture so that the workpiece remains in
equilibrium. The workpiece has unconstrained spatial motion
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of 12 degrees of freedom in 3D space. These movements are Subsequently, the particular fixture elements are selected to
along the positive and negative directions of the x, y and z- meet the design requirements. The final phase of assembly
axes and clockwise and counter clock wise rotations about the focuses on the construction of the fixture.
three axes. The degrees of freedom are constrained by the Fixture assembly can be done manually, or in an automat-
locators and clamps. ed system. Many researchers have examined fixture assembly
Four general requirements of a fixture are recognized, and using robots (Chan et al. 1990, Giusti et al. 1991). Shirinzadeh
they are discussed next (Sakurai 1992). (1993) discussed a prototype system for flexible fixtures in
(a) Accurate locating of the workpiece robotic assembly using a CAD package that is capable of set-
To ensure that the workpiece meets its quality standards by ting up a number of fixture modules and automatically chang-
tolerance specifications, a fixture must locate the part accurate- ing and adjusting the assembly robot without human inter-
ly in relation to the machine coordinate system and the work- vention.
piece coordinate system. This discrepancy is usually recog-
nized as the locating error, and should be minimized. If the 2.3 Dedicated Fixtures vs Modular Fixtures
locating error is too large, a different locating face must be Most fixtures are designed for a particular workpiece, thus
selected, or the tolerance of the locating face must be tight- being called 'dedicated fixtures'. Due to the current trends in
ened. Hence, accurate locating means holding the workpiece manufacturing promoting a larger product mix, flexibility,
precisely in space to prevent each of the spatial movements, and quality, many companies are demanding fixturing sys-
i.e. linear movement in either direction along x, y and z axes tems to be more 'flexible'. Flexible systems allow a variety of
and rotational movement in either direction about the axis individual parts to be held during machining or assembly,
(Gandhi and Thompson 1986). thus minimizing cost to produce each dedicated fixture, and
(b) Total restraint of the workpiece during machining reducing storage of a multiplicity of fixtures (Grippo et al.
The fixture must hold and restrain the workpiece from ex- 1987). With typical costs of dedicated fixtures amounting to
ternal forces, e.g. generated during machining. Therefore 10-20% of the total manufacturing costs, the economic impact
strong clamping forces that act against locators are essential. of flexible fixturing could be dramatic (Gandhi and Thompson
Optimization approaches have been developed to determine 1986).
the number of fixture elements required and forces to oppose Manufacturers have been designing fixtures as long as
cutting conditions (Menassa and DeVries 1991).Common lo- there have been machining operations. Fixtures are required to
cating rules in practice are the 3-2-1 or 4-2-1 methods for hold parts and workpieces in order for certain manufacturing
clamping (Henriksen 1973). Both rules provide the minimum processes to be performed. The traditional method has been to
number of fixture elements and the greatest rigidity. The 3-2-1 design and create a 'dedicated' fixture with the sole objective
method involves locating the workpiece in three orthogonal of producing a high quantity of the same part. However, the
planes and clamping against the locating planes to ensure rig- trend toward greater flexibility in production volume and
id fixturing. The 4-2-1 method simply applies four orthogonal product variety has led to more multi-purpose fixtures.
planes instead of three. Flexible fixtures for rotational components have been in use
(c) Limited deformation of the workpiece for several decades (Ridanda and Muralikrishnan 1992) and
The fixture clamping forces or the cutting forces may de- they are capable of holding a large variety of workpieces.
form the workpiece elastically or plastically. Strict require- Common fixtures for rotational parts are centres, mandrels,
ments must make sure any deformation is within specified collets and chucks. A centre is used to help mount and hold a
limits. These limits must be determined from given tolerances workpiece typically one centre at each end. The mandrel is a
of the workpiece. Finite element analysis is an excellent tool device in which through holes are provided to hold the work-
for this activity. Functional alternatives include additional piece and machining operations are performed within specific
fixturing supports in multiple locations. regions of the part. Collets are tapered bushings used typically
(d) No machining interference for holding bar stock of circular, square, and hexagonal cross
It is important that none of the fixturing components or el- sections. Chucks are the most popular fixture for rotational
ements interfere with the cutting tool during machining. Ob- components, specifically for lathes, and are usually equipped
viously, this would cause damage to the tool as well as other with three or four jaws (Kalpakjian 1992). Because of their ver-
contact surfaces. Two approaches were proposed for interfer- satility, there are many types of chucks. Most turning machine
ence avoidance: configuration space approach (CSA) and the tools also have advanced features for holding different shapes
generate and test approach (GTA) of workpieces.
Traditional fixtures of prismatic parts consist of steel base
2.2 Phases of Fixture Design plates with locating and clamping elements. These elements
The fixture design process essentially contained three phases: were usually welded together for repeatability, loading and
planning, design, and assembly. During the planning stage, an unloading, and meeting stringent design specifications such as
initial configuration of the fixture is determined. Decisions tolerances. The fixtures were hardened and grounded to help
made here are referenced to machine resources and facilities satisfy these requirements.
available, material handling, and quality specifications. In the With the need for flexibility and the increasing design com-
fixture design phase, more detailed analysis is examined plexity of products, modular fixtures have emerged. A modu-
concerning locating, clamping, and supporting the workpiece. lar fixture attempts to achieve flexibility via multipurpose fix-
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turing elements. A modular fixturing system consists of a formed and is changed back to a liquid to remove the work-
large number of standard fixturing elements such as base piece. The process only involves light cutting operations and
plates, locators, clamps, and supporting elements. Using these has been used in the aerospace industry for parts such as tur-
standard components, elements are selected to build a fixture bine blades.Please note that math equations might need to be
configuration to hold the workpiece. Modular fixturing ele- reformatted from the original submission for page layout reasons.
ments can be re-used for other products once disassembled, This includes the possibility that some in-line equations will be
and they are manufactured with high tolerances to meet made display equations to create better flow in a paragraph. If
workpiece requirements. display equations do not fit in the two-column format, they will
Two other main factors that have created the need for also be reformatted. Authors are strongly encouraged to ensure
modular fixtures include smaller batch sizes in production, that equations fit in the given column width.
and the greater usage of multiple axis CNC machine tools. The
interchangeability of modular fixture elements supports these 2.4 Flexible Mechanical Fixtures
trends. Flexible mechanical fixtures use various clamping tech-
Most of modular fixtures can be classified as kits with T- niques hold workpieces. Two types still in the development
slotted, grid holes, or dowel pin base plate fixtures. For fixture stages arc petal-collet fixtures and the multileaf vice. Both use
assembly, the T-slots, grid holes or dowel pin holes are located special clamping procedures consisting of tetrahedral 'petals'
on all faces of the base plate. The construction sets similar to and 'jaws' respectively to hold specific shapes of workpieces.
Lego blocks are fastened together with bolts held in T-nuts or Benhabib et al. (1991) developed a modular programmable
with capped screws. Several commercially available modular fixturing system. Other types of fixturing hardware as dis-
fixturing systems are listed below: cussed by Bidanda and Muralikrishnan (1992) are program-
( 1 ) T-Slot base plate mable clamps and numerical control (NC) fixturing machines.
(a) Erwin Halder Modular Jig and Fixture System, USA However, despite developments in fixturing hardware, modu-
(b) CATIC (China National Aeronautical Technology lar fixtures are the only ones commercially available. There-
Import and Export Corporation) System, China fore, most of the fixturing research has included the benefits of
( 2 ) Grid base plate these types of fixtures.
(a) Venlic Block Jig System, lMAO Corporation, Japan Within the past decade, the manufacturing research com-
(b) Yuasa Modular Flex System, USA munity has focused on developing and improving technolo-
(3) Dowel pin base plate gies such as computer-aided design and manufacturing
(a) Bluco Technik, Germany (CAD/CAM), computer-aided process planning (CAPP), and
(b) SAFE (Self Adapting Fixture Element) System, USA flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs). Eversheim and
The positional, geometrical and dimensional accuracy of Schneewind (1993) discuss the emerging developments in
these fixtures together with their location features are manu- CAPP alone as evolutionary. Kochan (1992) has introduced the
factured to an order of +0.01 mm. However, modular fixtures development of the first-ever commercial CAPP software as
tend to be larger than dedicated fixtures and base plates with an add-on to current CAD/CAM systems. Only recently has
grid holes have greater positional accuracy and strength than the literature documented research on prototype fixtures. This
those with T-slots. has been motivated by studies indicating that flexible and
Modular fixtures reduce the need for storage space com- adaptable fixtures could reduce the cost of fixturing by as
pared to dedicated fixturing, and the time and labour cost in much as 80% (Friedmann 1984).
designing dedicated fixtures. Machine shops have demon- One of the fixturing requirements discussed is that the fix-
strated these advantages in many instances (Friedmann 1984). ture must limit deformation of the workpiece. It is important
The major faults of modular fixtures are in accounting for re- to consider the cutting forces as well as the clamping forces on
peatability and tolerance stack up with the assembly of stand- the workpiece. Without adequate fixture support, machining
ard components. Vendors of modular fixtures attempt to re- operations do not conform to designed tolerances and specifi-
solve these inadequacies by hardening and grounding fixture cations. Excessive cutting and clamping forces result in work-
elements. Hence, modular fixtures are more commonly used piece deflections and deformations depending on the elasticity
for low production volume components with a wide product of the part. Finite element analysis has demonstrated to be an
variety. excellent tool to resolve some of these problems. A finite ele-
Other types of fixturing hardware have been developed ment model is created of the workpiece, and cutting and
though most of the advancements remain within the proto- clamping forces can be created and determined to reflect the
type state. Gandhi and Thompson (1985) developed a phase- behaviour of the modelled workpiece.
changing fixturing system to conform to workpieces with Lee and Haynes (1987) used finite element analysis (FEA)
complex shapes and features. A phase-change fixturing mate- to minimize fixturing force and workpiece deflection. They
rial is transformed from a solid into fluid or pseudo fluid by were able to determine the deflection of a part for a specific
the application of heat or an air stream, such as sand or wax. fixture assembly. Menassa and DeVries (1990) further extend-
This process is reversible. The complex workpiece is typically ed this work using specific fixturing elements considering the
immersed in the fluid and then is 'fixtured' by phase-changing complete fixture as an elastic body. Finite element analysis can
the fluid into a solid material. The solid material holds the provide an excellent tool to analyze the configurations of fix-
workpiece while certain manufacturing processes are per- tures before the actual assembly, thus reducing setup time and
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labour costs. locate the workpiece relative to the machine tool axes.
Bidanda and Muralikrishnan (1992) recognized two other Workpiece location in a fixture is significantly influenced
research directions needed for the advancement of automated by localized elastic deformation of the workpiece at the fixtur-
fixture design. There is a need for standardized databases and ing points. These deformations are caused by the clamping
information systems for manufacturing planning and analysis, force(s) applied to the workpiece. For a relatively rigid work-
interfacing the domain of fixture design. They also conclude piece, the localized elastic deformations cause it to undergo
that a standardized graphical interface for manufacturing rigid body translations and rotations which alter its location
would be advantageous. with respect to the cutting tool. It is therefore important to
minimize such effects through optimal design of the fixture
2.5 Locating and Clamping Considerations layout.
As stated by Koji Teramoto, Masahiko Anasoto and Kazuaki S. K. Hargrove and A. Kusiak recognize four general re-
Iwata, Fixturing Plan (FP) and Machining Plan (MP) are mutually quirements of a fixture: (i) Accurate location of the workpiece,
dependent. The design of machining fixtures relies on designer (ii) Total restraint of the workpiece during machining, (iii)
experience and his/her implicit knowledge to achieve a good Limited deformation of the workpiece, (iv) No machining in-
design. In order to facilitate its application, the explicit definition terference.
of the fixture design process and the knowledge involved is a In general, the fixture layout design has to satisfy four func-
prior and a fundamental task to undertake. Additionally, a tional requirements.
fundamental and well-known engineering principle should be i. Locating stability: Locating stability is related to the
considered: the functional requirements and their associated design of a fixture layout that can provide static equilibrium of
constraints should be the first input to any design process. A a workpiece when it is placed on fixtures. Locating stability is
relevant issue when considering requirements, taking this as a one of the most important requirements in fixture design since
general concept, is to make explicit the meaning of two main a workpiece has to satisfy this requirement before achieving
terms: Functional Requirement (FR) and Constraint (C). other functional requirements. Locating stability is mainly
Functional Requirement (FR), as it stated by different authors, concerned with static equilibrium under the given fixturing
‘represents what the product has to or must do independently of condition in the presence of manufacturing forces. In addition,
any possible solution’. Constraint (C) can be defined as ‘a the fixture layout design has to ensure that all locators main-
restriction that in general affects some kind of requirement, and it tain contact with the workpiece throughout the manufacturing
limits the range of possible solutions while satisfying the operation. Issues involving locating stability begin when the
requirements’. workpiece is placed on locators as these locators provide a
In machining, work holding is a key aspect, and fixtures are support against gravity forces until the workpiece is pro-
the elements responsible to satisfy this general goal. Usually, a cessed. Thus, locating stability also involves fixture force and
fixture solution is made of one or several physical elements, as kinematic analysis to estimate the necessary clamping forces
a whole the designed fixture solution must satisfy the entire to maintain a workpiece in equilibrium.
FRs and the associated Cs. Centering, locating, orientating, ii. Deterministic workpiece location: The fixture should
clamping and supporting, can be considered the functional provide the deterministic location for the workpiece to ensure
requirements of fixtures. In terms of constraints, there are position accuracy during operation. Deterministic workpiece
many factors to be considered, mainly dealing with: shape and location involves designing the locator positions or a fixture
dimensions of the part to be machined, tolerances, sequence of layout to provide a unique and accurate position and orienta-
operations, machining strategies, cutting forces, number of set- tion of a workpiece with respect to its fixture reference frame.
ups, set-up times, volume of material to be removed, batch Common challenges involving the fixture layout design that
size, production rate, machine morphology, machine capacity, will meet this functional requirement include the positioning
cost, etc. At the end, the solution can be characterized by its: accuracy, which is subject to a random manufacturing error of
simplicity, rigidity, accuracy, reliability, and economy (2). fixture elements, geometric variability of the workpiece and
workpiece positioning errors induced by fixture position. In
The methodology proposed for design of a fixture includes general, the position variability of the workpiece can be pre-
the realization of two stages. The first stage represents the dicted from the statistical characterization of the dimensioning
knowledge of the objects like part geometry, machining pro- and tolerancing scheme assigned to the fixtures and their con-
cess, functional and detailed fixture design, and fixture re- tact points on the workpiece. Thus, determining the fixture
sources. The second stage describes the inference process (de- layout, which is not sensitive to these variation sources, can
sign and interpretation rules) needed to obtain a first solution minimize the workpiece positional variability.
for the machining fixture . iii. Clamping stability: Clamping stability involves de-
Inaccuracies in workpiece location lead to errors in position termining the sequence of clamping and its layout that does
and orientation of a machined feature on the workpiece. The not disturb the stability and position accuracy of a workpiece
ability to accurately locate a workpiece in a machining fixture established by locators in the previous two functional re-
is strongly influenced by rigid body displacements of the quirements. Clamping stability and total restraint are func-
workpiece caused by elastic deformation of loaded fixture– tional requirements that are related to determining the clamp-
workpiece contacts. The accuracy of location of a machined ing positions and forces, which do not affect the part locating
feature depends on the machining fixture’s ability to precisely stability and position accuracy of workpiece provided by the
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locators. Clamps apply forces on the workpiece against any aircraft fuselage, fixture layout design, which falls under the
external force to ensure total restraint. The challenge in de- domain of the fixture planning and fixture configuration stages, is
signing clamping locations is to minimize the workpiece de- a primary concern and it involves adjusting the design nominal of
formations under clamping and external forces. locator positions in order to eliminate mean shifts.
iv. Total restraint: Clamps should completely restrain the Careful review of the literature conveniently places research
workpiece to withstand any forces and couples to maintain the activities in one of the categories shown in Table 1.
workpiece in an accurate position. In the fixture planning phase, production requirements in-
In addition, as set forth by R. T. Meyer and F. W. Liou (6), dicate batch sizes, types of machines, human resources, and
dynamic machining conditions occur when a workpart is sub- the overall cost. Other requirements such as quality standards
ject to machining forces that move through the work part or may dictate functional considerations such as inspection and
along its surface. A viable fixture designed for a workpart ex- tolerance specifications. Research in this area focus on produc-
periencing dynamic machining must ensure: the workpart is tion planning optimization techniques such as scheduling
restrained for all time, the clamping forces are not too large or models and algorithms. In the design phase, where most of the
small, deterministic positioning, accessibility, stability of the documented research has been concentrated, there are two
workpart in the fixture while under no external forces, and a subphases.
positive clamping sequence. During the design phase, a detailed 'analysis' is examined
Workpiece motion arising from localized elastic defor- to locate and position the workpiece. The next subphase is
mation at the workpiece/fixture contacts due to machining 'synthesis'. This phase can also be referred to as 'fixture repre-
and clamping forces significantly affect the workpiece location sentation'. The selection of fixture elements is required to satis-
accuracy and hence the machined part quality. The tangential fy the requirements and represent the fixture configuration.
friction force plays an important role in fixture configuration The final phase is assembly. There are basically two ap-
design as it can be utilized to reduce the number of fixture proaches to assembly, manual or automated. Though this re-
components, thereby the workpiece features accessibility to search may be investigated outside the realm of fixture design,
machining operations and providing a damping mechanism to the results can be implemented in this area. The taxonomy of
dissipate input energy from machining forces out of the fixture design categorizes and organizes fixture design tools,
workpiece/fixture system. Contact problems with friction are and would serve as a good classification for research direc-
generally complicated by the fact that the contact surface can tions. It provides a visual arrangement of investigations in the
experience slipping, sliding, rolling or tension release depend- fixture design area, and provides a perspective in relation to
ing on the magnitude of the normal and tangential forces at other areas of research.
the contact interface (7).The design of a fixture that permits Fixture planning and design is defined in this context as
accurate machining of the workpiece by keeping the contribu- consisting of all the tasks and information required to design a
tion of workpiece/fixture elastic deformation to the machining workholder to locate, hold, and support a workpiece during a
error within the specified tolerance is a critical step in process machining process. Fixture planning and design relies on the
planning. The important aspects of fixture design are positions experience, skills, and knowledge of the tool designer. Though
of locators and clamps, and clamping forces, such that work- considered as an isolated activity, the tool designer requires
piece deformation due to clamping and machining forces is information from preceding and succeeding functions in order
minimized. to effectively locate and hold the workpiece for machining
operations.
2.6 Fixture Design Process Three subfunctions are identified for fixturing that is con-
Fixture design is one of the most important design tasks during sistent with the classifications of fixture design research dis-
process design for a new product development since it involves cussed earlier. The first activity involves the planning of fix-
defining the locations and orientations of parts during assembly ture design. The necessary input requires the process plan,
processes as well as providing physical support, which can engineering drawing, and production information. Production
greatly affect product dimensional variations and process yield. information contains information about batch sizes and cost
Generally, fixture design process can be divided into three stages. per piece to manufacture. This activity is typically performed
i. Fixture planning: In the fixture planning stage, issues related by the process planner and a manufacturing engineer and/or
to the number of fixtures needed, the type of fixtures, the fixture designer. Their cooperation is essential in identifying
orientation of fixture corresponding to orientation, and the the kind of fixtures to be used. For example, depending on the
joining or machining operations, which fixtures have to product information about production volume, it is deter-
handle are identified. mined at this stage whether to use modular fixturing or design
ii. Fixture configuration: The fixture configuration stage a permanent fixture. In general, modular fixtures are used for
determines the layout of a set of locators and clamps on a lower production volume, and permanent fixtures are used for
workpiece surface such that the workpiece is completely high volume production.
restrained. Table 2 shows an example of fixturing alternatives and
iii. Fixture construction: Finally, the fixture construction characteristics for three types of fixtures.
stage involves constructing fixture components and then General purpose fixtures and tools are universal work
installing them to support the workpiece. Specifically for complex holders such as chucks, collet chucks and vices, machine vices,
assemblies such as an automotive body, a ship hull, and an and universal workholding systems (8). They usually hold
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regular or symmetrically shaped workpieces such as squares, ber of fixture design systems being developed and the many
rectangles, cylinders, hexagons, and similar part shapes. Some optimization approaches to configuration, location and posi-
manufacturing companies use computer-aided fixture design tioning of work holding elements. The art of fixturing is ac-
systems. Most of these systems simply allow the user to identi- quired through trial and observation, and these are the skills
fy and select parameters required for planning and design, and knowledge the fixture designer develops over a period of
and are extremely 'interactive'. time. Table III demonstrates how both of these methodologies
Fixture planning is controlled by the type of fixtures avail- are implemented during fixture planning and design, and the
able, facility resources, and the specific machine tools. For ex- important part each plays in constructing the final fix-
ample, the machine tool may be limited by the number of axes ture/workpiece assembly.
and its orientation for machining, and this will determine how Desirable characteristics of a fixture are: positive reaction
the fixture is constructed. The output of this subfunction is the forces at the locators for all time, deterministic positioning,
type and kind of fixtures required. strong accessibility, stability of the workpart in the fixture
The fixture design subfunction is the most active in terms of while under no external forces, and a positive clamping se-
product description. The selection of fixture elements and the quence.
positioning process is related to their major function, contact
surface, and its ability to restrict specific degrees of freedom to 2.7 Computer Aided Fixture Design
constrain the workpiece. Once the decision is made on the Over the past decade, much focus has been put on intelligent
type of fixture to use (modular, general purpose, or perma- methods for computer aided fixture design to seek a technical
nent), the manufacturing features of the workpiece also de- breakthrough in embedding more design knowledge into
termine the fixture elements and their relative position and semiautomatic or automatic CAFD systems. Table 4 shows a
location to constrain the workpiece. Again, this fixture config- detailed discussion [Hui Wang et al. 2010].
uration is controlled by the accessibility of the machine tool Fixture design includes the identification of clamps, locators,
and the machining features required. The fixture designer is and support points, and the selection of the corresponding fixture
the major participant in developing the fixture. However in elements for their respective functions. There are four main stages
smaller companies, the machinist may be responsible for de- within a fixture design process—setup planning (D1), fixture
veloping and designing the fixture. The output is a description planning (D2), fixture unit design (D3) and verification (D4), as
of the fixture design indicating the location and position of the Fig. 1 illustrates [Hui Wang et al. 2010, Kang Y et al. 2003 and
elements, and a listing of these elements. Boyle lain]. Setup planning determines the number of setups
The last subfunction is fixture assembly. This activity may required to perform all the manufacturing processes, the task for
happen concurrently with fixture design, and is typically per- each setup, e.g., the ongoing manufacturing process and
formed by the machinist and/or the fixture designer. In ad- workpiece, orientation and position of the workpiece in each
vanced manufacturing operations, a robotic assembly may be setup. A setup represents the combination of processes that can
used. The activity is controlled by the number of setups re- be performed on the workpiece by a single machine tool without
quired and the fixtures available and requires the layout of the having to change the position and orientation of the workpiece
fixture design activity. The final output is the fix- manually.
ture/workpiece assembly ready for the machining operations. During fixture planning, the surfaces, upon which the locators
Table 3 provides a systems view of fixture planning and and clamps must act, as well as the actual positions of the locating
design. Lower level relationships would also reveal crucial and clamping points on the workpiece, are identified. The
data exchanged between the functions. The model identifies number and position of locating points must be such that the
the activities and information transferred, but Table 3 further workpiece is adequately constrained during the manufacturing
recognizes the sublevel data that promotes functional interde- process. In the third stage of fixture design, suitable units, (i.e., the
pendency and is necessary to complete each major function. locating and clamping units, together with the base plate), are
Fixture design has been recognized as an art as well as a generated.
science. The science of fixturing is demonstrated by the num-

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TABLE 1
TAXONOMY OF FIXTURE PLANNING AND DESIGN
Phase Requirements Methods and tools
Planning Production volume Production planning techniques
Machine resources Machine capabilities
Quality standards
Design analysis Accurate locating of workpiece Tolerance analysis
Total restraint of workpiece during ma- Expert systems, FEA, features
chining CAD/CAM, CAPP
Limited deformation of workpiece Optimization methods
No machining interference Workpiece representation
Optimal setup sequence
Synthesis Select fixture elements for locating Modular fixtures
Select fixture elements for clamping Chucks, centre, collets
Select fixture elements for support Comfortable and programmable fixtures,
Phase-change NC fixturing systems, etc.

Assembly Manual assembly Human factors

Automated assembly Robotic technology
Man-machine interfaces

TABLE 2
FIXTURING ALTERNATIVES AND CHARACTERISTICS
HIGH Modular fixturing HIGH
General fixturing

Machine cycle time

Operations needed

Operator skill
Cost per part
Part variety

Set up time
Permanent fixturing

LOW LOW
LOW MEDIUM HIGH
PRODUCTION VOLUME

TABLE 3
DATA AND INFORMATION EXCHANGE BETWEEN SYSTEM PLANNING AND DESIGN FUNCTIONS
Process Plan Engineering Drawing Resources Machine tool Manufacturing Setup infor-
features mation
Sequence of opera- Raw material type Machine tools Machine type Type of feature Fixture availa-
tions bility
Workpiece configuration Fixtures available Configuration Tolerances
Machine tools Machine con-
Surface finish Manufacturing Table size Surface finish figuration
Workpiece number Personnel
Tolerances Main axis direction Machining process Workpiece
Standard times deformation
Heat treatment Machine ID code Allowances
Interference
Hardness Machine location

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Table 4
Current CAFD Literature
Method Level of detail Application
D1 D2 D3 D4
Amaral, et al. Finite element analysis ✓
Aoyama, et al. Genetic algorithm ✓ ✓
Asante Finite element-based ✓ Load and pressure distribution
calculation
Bansal, et al. ✓ ✓ ✓ An integrated fixture planning
system for minimum tolerances
Boyle, et al. Case based reasoning ✓ ✓ ✓
Cai, et al. TRIZ evolution technology TRIZ-based evolution study for
modular fixture
Chen, et al. Case based reasoning ✓
Choubey, et al. Genetic algorithm ✓ ✓ ✓ Machining fixtures
Ding, et al. ✓ ✓ Fixture fault diagnosis, assem-
bly processes
Estrems, et al. ✓ Fixtures in machining process-
es
Fan, et al. XML based information repre- ✓ ✓
sentation, Case based reasoning
method
Girish, et al. Tabu search Fixture elements Modular fixture elements
management
Hamedi Artificial neural network, Genet- ✓ ✓ ✓
ic algorithm, Finite element
method
Hou, et al. ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Modular fixtures
Hurtado, et al. Finite element method, model- ✓ ✓ ✓ Machining fixtures
ing of fixture-workpiece con-
tacts
Kakish, et al. Knowledge-based modeling Universal Modu- Universal modular jigs and
lar jigs and fixtures
fixtures infor-
mation modeling
Kang, et al. ✓
Kaya Finite element method, Genetic ✓ ✓ ✓ Machining fixture
algorithm
Krishnakumar, et Finite element method, Genetic ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Machining fixtures
al. algorithm
Kumar, et al. CAD-based collision detection ✓ ✓ Modular fixtures
Li, et al. Finite element method, Genetic ✓ ✓ ✓ Sheet metal assembly with la-
algorithm ser welding
Li, et al. Multi-objective Optimization ✓ ✓ ✓ Tolerance allocation, assembly
fixture
Lien et al. Integrated measurement in ✓ ✓ On-line correction of welding
clamping systems paths, Robotic welding of thin-
walled aluminum structures
Lin, et al. ✓ ✓ Modular fixtures for measure-
ment
Liu, et al. ✓ Assembly fixture fault diagno-
sis, sheet metal joining process
Mervyn, et al. Evolutionary search algorithm ✓ ✓ Modular fixtures
Peng, et al. Desktop virtual reality technol- ✓ ✓ ✓ Modular fixture design and
ogy simulation
Ratchev, et al. Finite element method ✓ The prediction of part-fixture
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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 4, Issue 2, February-2013 9
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deformation and tolerance

Shen, et al. ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Reconfigurable fixtures, Auto-
motive engine machining and
assembly
Sikstrom, et al. Super element (SE) fixture mod- ✓ ✓ Fixture design in fusion weld-
eling, Coupled thermal– ing
mechanical analysis
Subramaniam, et al. Multi-agent system, Genetic ✓ ✓
algorithms and Neural net-
works
Subramanian, et al. Genetic algorithm ✓ ✓

Wang ✓ ✓ Tolerance analysis in fixture-

workpiece system
Wang, et al. Case based reasoning ✓ ✓ ✓ Modular fixtures for welding
Wardak, et al. Finite element method ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Drilling fixtures
Wu ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Geometry generation of fixture

Wua, et al. Linkage mechanism theory: a ✓ ✓ Modular fixture

four-bar mechanism and linkage
curve
Zheng, et al. ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Precise modular fixture
Zheng, et al. Finite element analysis ✓ For fixture stiffness

[3] Asante James N. A combined contact elasticity and finite ele-

ment-based model for contact load and pressure distribution
3 CONCLUSION calculation in a frictional workpiece fixture system. The Interna-
tional Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology
Fixtures have a direct impact upon product manufacturing
2008;39(5–6):578–88.
quality, productivity and cost, so much attention has already [4] Bansal S, Nagarajan S, Reddy NV. An integrated fixture plan-
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