Modeling and optimal design of fixture locating scheme

CAFD is crucial to develop FMS and CIMS. However, design qualities of fixtures still depend on designer's experience and knowledge, and optimum fixture design results are difficult to obtain. So a kinetic locating scheme model was formulated on the basis of the relationship between the workpiece position errors and the localization source errors. Furthermore, a criterion for the robust optimal design was proposed. By the robust optimal design, the locating quality of the fixture could be increased. Finally, by means of practical examples, a detailed discussion was made to the optimal design of the locating scheme. A comparative study was also carried out between the optimal solution and the empirical one. It turns out that stable machining precisions of workpieces can be effectively achieved by the robust design method. In automobile and aeronautical manufacturing fields, the optimal approach of fixture locating scheme has more theoretical and applied values.