Part Fixturing in Agile Manufacturing Systems: A Study

摘要

A major obstacle to implementing agile manufuacturing is part fixturing. This study searches for part fixturing concepts that will relieve the problems of high cost and long leads time to acquire fixtures for new parts. The study focuses on automotive machining applications in three families of parts: engine blocks, cylinder heads, and front and rear transmission cases. A search of the state-of-the-art technology was conducted by: (1) identifying the types of fixtures in current use, (2) searching the literature and patent files, (3) meeting with fixture suppliers, and (4) meeting with academic providers of design and analysis methodologies. A development plan would consist of two parallel tracks: a Technology development track and a Methodology development track. The basic goal is the replace part specific fixtures with technology that allows the components of a fixture to be reuseable and the fixture itself to be reconfigurable so that it can be used for existing or new members of a parts family. (Copyright (c) 1997 National Center for Manufacturing Sciences.)