An important aspect in the design of a good fixture is that of imparting sufficient rigidity to the entire work piece surface that are to be machined. Rigidity refers to the ability of the system to withstand applied loads with minimal deformation. A good fixture must able to completely restrain the work piece to counter any possible cutting forces and couples in machining stages. The present study aims at implementing finite element analysis and finite element optimization techniques to determine the optimum fixture configuration for drilling through a deformable work piece. The 3-2-1 locating principle has been used and in order to simulate real time conditions contact elements have been used at the interfaces of the work piece and the fixturing elements. The desired fixturing characteristics are optimized with respect to the objective function. Excessive clamp forces and improper location may cause large elastic deformations in the work piece. Hence the lateral deflection of the work piece is chosen as the objective function. ANSYS software is used to carry out the Finite Element Analysis and optimization. Three case studies have been taken to illustrate the method. Comparison has been made between the initial and optimum fixture configuration.
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