DEVELOPMENT OF AUTOMATED DEDICATED FIXTURE CONFIGURATION DESIGN

SYSTEMS WITH PREDEFINED FIXTURE COMPONENT TYPES:

PART 1, BASIC DESIGN

ABSTRACT: An automated modular fixture design system has been developed in our previous
study. Since dedicated fixtures are commonly used in mass production, in this research, a
technique of automated dedicated fixture configuration design is studied with predefined fixture
component types. The design methodology is divided into two stages: basic design and detail
design. The basic design activities include 1) selection of functional fixture components such as
locators and clamps from a standard fixture component database, 2) generation of customized
supports with variable dimensions for different fixture design requirements, and 3) assembly of
fixture components into a final configuration on a fixture base. In order to implement the fixture
design procedure, models are developed to represent the standard fixture components and
customized supports. The assembly
relationships among fixture components are established based on a compatibility analysis. The
detail design includes fixture unit combination, connection design, interference avoidance
modification, and technological-rule-based modification. In this paper, the principles and
implementation of basic design are presented, while the detail design will be addressed in a separate
paper.

INTRODUCTION

Fixtures are used to locate and hold workpieces during the manufacturing processes to
ensure production quality, productivity, and low-cost. Fixtures can be generally divided into two
categories: modular fixtures and dedicated fixtures [1]. Modular fixtures are composed of
standard fixture components such as standard locators, clamps, supports and baseplates that can
be assembled into a variety of configurations for different workpieces and used in low-volume
production applications [2]. Dedicated fixtures are specially designed and fabricated for a given
workpiece and are used in mass production due to the advantages of specially designed
performance, such as convenient operation, stiff support in desired directions, and efficient
structural space utilization. Since fixture design and fabrication contributes significantly to the
manufacturing quality and lead time, it is desired to automatically design and verify
dedicated fixture designs in the product design and manufacturing planning stage so that
alternative designs can be compared for optimal solutions. In addition, an automated fixture
design process is desired to accommodate flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) and computer-
integrated manufacturing systems (CIMS) [3].

Fixture design can be divided into three phases: setup planning, fixture planning, and
fixture configuration design. The objective of setup planning is to determine the number of
setups, the position and orientation of workpiece in each setup, and machining surfaces in
each setup [4]. Fixture planning is to determine the locating, supporting, and clamping points on
workpiece surfaces [5]. The task of fixture configuration design is to select or generate fixture
components and place them into a final configuration to fulfill the functions of locating and
clamping the workpiece [6].
This research is concentrated on fixture configuration design. The inputs to the automated
dedicated fixture configuration system are the fixture planning for a certain setup, the CAD
model of the workpiece, and CAD models of the fixture components. The output of the system
is a dedicated fixture configuration design.

Previous research on automated fixture design concentrated on modular fixtures. The related
studies includes: automated modular fixture configuration design with the assistance of fixture
component assembly relationship [6, 7]; fixture design retrieval based on group technology [8,
9] and case- based reasoning [10, 11] techniques; fixture design based on kinematics analysis
[12-14], expert systems [15-17], and geometric analysis [18,19]; fixturability [20] and fixturing
surface accessibility analysis [21]; and a preliminary work on automated generation of dedicated
fixture designs [22].

There are certain key differences between dedicated and modular fixtures. In modular fixture
design, there is a component library with pre-designed and dimensioned standard fixture
components. Thus, the modular fixture configuration design is actually to assembly the
fixture components into a configuration. In designing dedicated fixtures, the fixture
components can be designed from geometric shapes with variable dimensions and connections.
There are more uncertainties imposed on dedicated fixture design tasks.

To streamline the whole design process, automated dedicated fixture configuration design is
divided into two stages: basic design and detail design, as shown in Figure 1. The basic
design mainly concerns the generation of an initial result of the dedicated fixture
configuration, including the standard fixture component selection, support type selection and
dimensioning, and the position and orientation determination of the fixture components. The
detail design includes fixture unit combination, interference avoidance modification,
connection design, and technological-rule-based modification. The fixture unit combination is to
optimize the fixture structure by combining two or more functional units into a multi-purpose
unit based on functional and spatial conditions. The interference avoidance modification is to
check the interference that may exist in the design result and then make proper modifications.
The connection design is to finalize the connection features between fixture supports and the
fixture base, and between standard locator/clamp and supports.

Stage 1 --- basic

Workpiece model & machining
Standardized Workpiece placement in fixture
customize
fixture
componen
library Fixturing surface/point selection on

Generation of functional
1. Selection of standardized
Fixture detailed type and
componen 2. Generation of customized
model
database 3. Placement of result fixture components
fixture workspace by

fixture base generation &

Fixture
componen Stage 2 --- detail design
relationshi
Unit combination
Interference avoiding

Rule Technological-rule-based
Connection design between fixture
(like welding, screwing, and
Figure 1. Automated dedicated fixture configuration design process
Based on a structural analysis of dedicated fixtures, techniques to implement the
automated dedicated fixture configuration design have been developed. A prototype
system has been implemented on a commercial CAD platform. This paper presents the
structural analysis of dedicated fixtures first, and then address the techniques related to the
basic design. Detail design, however, will be presented in a separate paper [23].

STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF DEDICATED FIXTURES

Generally, a dedicated fixture is made up of several functional units on a fixture base to fulfill
certain fixturing functions including locating and clamping. Typical fixturing functions
are illustrated in Figure 2. A functional unit usually consists of locators/clamps and a
support. In principle, all the fixture components of dedicated fixtures can be
customized. However, locators/clamps are typically standard components as they come in direct
contact with the workpiece and are easily worn out. The standard components also permit
exchangeability, ensure high resistance to wear, and shorten the manufacturing lead-time. On the
other hand, supports are used to support locators/clamps on the fixture base. They are usually
customized in shape and dimensions to satisfy the different requirements of the workpiece and
fixture configurations. Therefore, the design of supports needs to be generated for adapting
different application situations.

workpiece
locator suppor
t
support locato

base r base

(a). Bottom-locating (b). Side-locating

clamp
clamp
workpiece
workpiece
Spring
support support

base
base

(c). Side-clamping (d). Top-clamping

Figure 2. Typical fixturing functions

It is also a fact that in many cases, the types of supports are predefined based on existing
practice and experiences. In order to design and fabricate fixture supports quickly, the basic shape
templates of the supports are pre-defined while the detailed shape, dimensions and assembly
positions are changeable in different fixture designs. Therefore, the major tasks of an automated
dedicated fixture configuration design in this research are to select the appropriate fixture
component types, determine dimensions, and place them into a configuration on the fixture base.

BASIC DESIGN OF DEDICATED FIXTURES

Based on the structural analysis of dedicated fixtures, the following five representations and
models are established to support the automated dedicated fixture configuration design:
Fixturing Requirement Representation is defined to identify fixture design input information;
Standard Fixture Component Model is established for the type and dimension selection
of locators/clamps;
 Customized Support Template Model is established for the generation of supports;
Fixture Component Relationship Database is established for determining the
compatibility between locators/clamps and basic support templates;
Constraint-based Fixture Component Assembly Model is established for positioning
fixture components on fixture base.

In the following subsections, these representation and models are introduced as the foundation
for the automated dedicated fixture configuration design system.

Fixturing Requirement
Representation

Fixturing requirements are identified in the fixture planning stage, where the fixturing
accuracy, accessibility, and stability are considered in determine the fixturing surfaces and
points [5]. The results of fixturing requirement identification include the fixturing positions, the
number and the types of fixture units required, and the properties of the fixturing surfaces and
points. A functional fixture unit is originated from the specified fixturing surface/point on the
workpiece. Thus, the representation of the fixturing surface/point should provide the information
for the generation of the fixture units. Fixturing requirement representation can be defined by
a set of geometric and
machining data as
follows: v
Fid , Fgeo_type , Ffunc_type , Ffinish , FDOF , p1, p2, S accs , Paccs , Stiff
M FS _ WP n,
where: Fid is an integer number representing the fixturing surface ID; Fgeo_type is the geometric
type of the fixturing surface which could be a plane, inner or outer cylindrical surface;
Ffunc_type is
a fixturing function type of the fixturing surface, which could be side-locating, side-clamping,
bottom- locating, or top-clamping; Ffinish is the surface finish of the fixturing surface; FDOF is the
number of degrees of freedom to be restricted; n is a normal vector of the fixturing surface if the
Fgeo_type is a plane, or the axis vector if Fgeo_type is a cylindrical surface; p1 is the primary fixturing
point; p2 is the
optional assistant point which may be needed to determine the orientation of the S accs
locator/clamp;
is the surface accessibility Paccs is the value of local fixturing point accessibility; and Stiff is
value;
the stiffness requirement for the fixture unit.

Among all the model items, Ffunc_type, Ffinish, FDOF, and Stiff are user- S accs and Paccs can be
specified,
obtained by using the discretization algorithm [21], and others can be directly extracted from
the workpiece CAD model when the fixturing surface/point is specified.

Standard Fixture Component Model

In dedicated fixture design, one important issue is to use standard fixture components as much as
possible for the purpose of reducing fixture fabrication time and cost. Since the functional
fixture components (locators/clamps) are in direct contact with workpieces and subject to wear, it
is desired that these components are made of hard materials and replaceable. Therefore the
locators/clamps are usually standard and commercially available in certain dimension series.
A standard fixture
component model is established for selecting and dimensioning standard fixture components
in dedicated fixture design, which leads to the establishment of standard fixture component
database.
A standard fixture component can be described with its component type, functional surfaces,
and
dimensions. The information is retrieved during standard fixture component selection. Figure
3 shows some examples of standard locators and clamps. The fixture component type
information is used to determine how the component is used in fixture design.

The functional surfaces used to locate or clamp the workpiece are defined as contact faces and
the associated functional points are defined as contact points. The surfaces in contact with the
fixturing supports are defined as supported faces and the associated points are defined as the
supported points. For example, in Figure 4(a), the highlighted top surface is the contact face and its
center point PNT1
is the contact point, while the highlighted surface in Figure 4(b) is the supported face and its
center
point PNT2 is the supported point. The functional sur face can be represented as follows:
Func_Surf = {Surface_Id, Surface_Type, nv, Point_Id, Point_Type,
If_ct_above_spted,
Surface_Prop}
where: Surface_Id is an integer number representing the functional surface ID; Surface_Type is
the functional type of the functional surface which could be “contact” or “supported”; n is the
normal direction of the functional surface; Point_Id is an integer number representing the
functional point ID; Point_Type is the type of the functional point which could be on plane, on
cylinder, on sphere, on cylinder axis, on hole axis, or on slot; If_ct_above_spted describes
the relative positional relationship between the contact surface and the supported surface
which could be +1 or -1; Surface_Prop is the surface finish of locating surface.

a). Radial rest button b). Flat rest button c). Rectangle rest pad d). Round locating pin e). Diamond locating
pin

f). V_block (g). Screw clamp (h). Strap clamp (i). Hook clamp
Figure 3. Examples of standardized locators/clamps with detailed types

(a) CONTACT_FACE/PNT (b) SUPPORTED_FACE/PNT

Figure 4. Functional surfaces/points of a flat rest button

The dimensional information is an important part of the standard fixture component model. For
a particular component, primary design dimensions play a major role in determining how a
component fits the workpiece. The primary design dimensions may determine the primary
size, functional height, and primary connection size of a standard fixture component. For
example, the diameter of the rest button ( dia_a) in Figure 5 and the linear dimension of the rest
pad (oal_b) in Figure 6 are such primary design dimensions. The dimensions of thk_b in Figure 5
and pad_thk in Figure 6 are functional height dimensions. And dia_d in Figure 5 and
dia_c in Figure 6 are primary connection dimension. The
locators/clamps are selected according to their primary dimensions. Other dimensions may be
defined with certain relationships with the primary design dimensions.

Typically, the locators/clamps of the standard component library are composed of families
of components (also called “table-driven” components or instances). A family of components
is a collection of similar components varying in different sizes or slightly different detailed
features. Every family has a generic basic model that all instances of the family resemble.
Concepts like class, inheritance, and group technology can be applied here for an effective
way of retrieving large
number of standard components. Figure 5 shows an example of generic model with
dimension names displayed and its instances are listed in the form of family table as shown in Table
1.

TATBLE 1
Example of Family Table
dia_d oal_c thk_b dia_a instance
6.375 12.7 4.78 9.7 4_41475
6.025 12 6 10 4_45065
6.025 14 8 10 4_45066
8.025 14 6 13 4_45067
8.025 16 8 13 4_45068
10 20 7 13 4_45455
12.025 25 10 19 4_45060
12.025 28 12 19 4_45061
Figure 5. Generic model of a rest button

Thus each dimension can be described as

follows:
DIMENSION = {dim_name, dim_type, func_type, famtab_attribute,
default_value, min_value, max_value}
where: Dim_type is the dimension type and could be a diameter, radius, length, or angle;
Func_type could be a primary design dimension, functional height, supported connection
dimension, or contact
height; and Famtab_attribute Indicates if the dimension is obtained from a family table or not
which could be 1 or 0.

Customized Support Template

Model

In fixture design, the function of supports is to connect the locators/clamps to the fixture base and
to make the height of the fixture unit. Although the support may vary greatly in shape and size
due to the diversity of workpiece and different fixturing requirements, in many cases, the basic
shapes of the supports are usually pre-defined in shop practice and stored in a computer
database. Typical support shapes are shown in Figure 7 where the dimensional relationships are
different for different types of supports. Detailed shapes, dimensions and assembly positions of
the supports may be changed for different fixture designs. Therefore, several basic support
templates are employed as the basis for obtaining a suitable support components through the
modification of shape and dimensions.

Figure 6. Generic model a side locating/clamping b top clamping support c bottom locating support
of a rest pad support template template template
Note: The dimensional relations of these support templates are different.
Figure 7. Typical support templates

Similarly to the standard fixture component, each support template can be modeled with its type,
functional surfaces, and dimensions. The functional surfaces used to support the locator/clamp
are defined as supporting faces and the associated functional points are defined as supporting
points. The surfaces used to connect the support to the fixture base are defined as supported faces
and the associated functional points are defined as supported points. Figure 8 shows an
example case of bottom locating support where the top surface as the supporting faces and PNT0
are the supporting points, while the bottom surfaces are the supported faces and the centers
PNT1 are the supported points. Thus, the functional surface of support template can be modeled as
follows:
 v
Func_Surf={Surface_Id, Surface_Type, n , Point_Id, Point_Type}

Dimensional information is also important in the support template model. Unlike the standard
fixture component, most of the dimensions are relation-driven. The primary design dimension of
a support template is the dimension that represents its functional height. The functional height
satisfaction is at the top priority among the design rules. When the value of functional height
dimension changes to fit the clearance between the locator/clamp and the fixture base, other
dimensions need to be changed accordingly. The changes of other dimensions can be
realized either by recommended relations with the primary design dimensions or by user
specification. Some dimensions are
constant when the primary dimension is in a certain range. For example, among all the
dimensions of the support template as shown in Figure 9, d4 represents the functional height and
hence is the primary design dimension. Other dimensions may vary according to the recommended
relations.

Primary design dimension: d4

SUPPORTING_FACE/PN
SUPPORTED_FACE/P
Figure 8. Supporting and supported
faces and points of a bottom
locating support
Recommended dimension relations:
1) d0 = ceil (4/100)*15
2) d1 = ceil (1.3*d4)
3) d2 = ceil (d4/100)*60
4) d3 = 0.5* d2
5) d5 = d3
6) d6 = 0.5*d0
Note: ceil is a function to obtain the
smallest integer not less than the real
value.
Figure 9. Example of a support template with
recommended dimension relations

Therefore, for each dimension of the support template, it can be modeled as follows:
DIMENSION = {dim_name, dim_type, func_type, attribute, default_value,
min_value,
max_value}
where func_type specifies the function of the dimension, which could be the functional
height, supporting connection dimension, or supported connection dimension; and attribute
indicates whether the dimension is generated by relations or not.

Fixture Component Relationship Database

The fixture component relationship provides the information for determining if a particular
support can be used with a selected locator/clamp. The fixture component relationship
database can be described in a decision matrix. The rows of the table index the detailed types of
the standardized locators/clamps, while the columns index the detailed types of the customized
th
support templates. The element at position (i, j) represents whether j locator/clamp can be
th
supported by i support.

The fixture component relationship database can be constructed either interactively or

automatically. In the interactive mode, an operator decides what kinds of locators/clamps can be
used with what kinds of support templates and the corresponding values in the table. On the
automated method, feature recognition and relationship inference techniques are used to
determine the database, as illustrated in Figure 10. To construct the fixture component
relationship database through feature recognition and relationship inference, the functional
type (such as bottom locating or side clamping) and geometric match conditions (such as
component size and contact area) between locators/clamps and supports are considered.

Constraint-based Fixture Component Assembly

Model

The constraint-based fixture component assembly has been applied to modular fixture design
[24]
and can be also applied to the dedicated fixture design. To assemble components properly, three
rules are applied: 1) The constraints must be complete; 2) The component cannot be
over constrained; 3) The dependence on other components should be reduced as much as possible.

Standard Component
Database Fixture
Relationship Component
Inference Engine Relationship
Support Template Database
Database

Figure 10. Automatic construction of fixture component relationship database

In order to specify the spatial constraints between the locators/clamps and the workpiece, a
fixture workspace is defined which provides a global datum for fixture assembling. Based on the
fixture workspace, four relationships are defined for the constraint-based fixture component
assembly. They are, 1) the relationship between workpiece and fixture workspace; 2) the
relationship between locator/clamp and fixture workspace; 3) the relationship between support and
fixture workspace; and
4) the relationship between fixture base and fixture
workspace.

First, to assemble the workpiece into the fixture workspace, a coordinate system is defined on
the workpiece model to position and orient the workpiece with respect to the z-axis of the
machining tool axis. To position locator/clamp in the fixture workspace, the constraint
relationships are specified between the locator/clamp and the fixture workspace.

A complete functional fixture unit in the fixture workspace is composed of a locator/clamp and
a support. After the locator/clamp has been positioned according to the constraint-based
relationship between the locator/clamp and fixture workspace, the corresponding support needs to
be assembled by the constraint-based relationship between the support and fixture workspace as
shown in Figure
11 and 12. Finally, the fixture base is placed into the fixture workspace by following the
same
principles as assembling the workpiece, i.e., the alignment constraint of the datum
coordinate systems is kept the same between the fixture base and the fixture workspace. The size
of the fixture base is determined in terms of the overall dimensions of the workpiece and fixture
units after they are assembled together. It is noted that all the assembly functions are
implemented automatically by the fixture design program.

workpiece
fixture customized
Alig
SUPPORTED_P SUPPORTING_P
on
Orient SUPPORTING_F
DATUM_PLA
parallel
SUPPORTED_FA
on SUPPORTED_FA
Orient
ADTM

ADTM3
Figure 11. Constraint model of assembling Figure 12. Example of assembling a rest
customized support button
IMPLEMENTATION OF DEDICATED FIXTURE CONFIGURATION DESIGN SYSTEM

Based on the fixture workspace relationships defined above, an automatic generation of

dedicated fixture configuration design is implemented. The procedure of generating a fixture
unit is as following. 1) to generate a fixture workspace; 2) to position the workpiece in the
fixture workspace according to the constraint-based assembly relationship; 3) to select the type
and dimensions of locator/clamp, and to assemble it into the fixture workspace according to
the constraint-based assembly relationship; 4) to select the support template according to
the fixture component relationship, determine dimensions of the support by matching the
primary design dimension with functional requirement such as the supporting height, and then
mount it into the fixture workspace according to the constraint-based assembly relationship; and
5) to select or generate a fixture base and assemble it into the fixture workspace according to the
constraint-based assembly relationship.

In selecting the type of a locator/clamp, a rule base needs to be established in advance. Then, an
instance with proper dimensions needs to be determined based on the dimensional information of
the workpiece. The type of support template is determined according
to the fixture component relationship pre-stored in a database. To dimension the support, the
primary design dimension is determined such that the functional height of the selected
locator/clamp instance is reached with respect to the fixture base. Other dimensions of the
support template can be adjusted by recommended relations accordingly. After the
dimension adjustment, the required support model can be obtained by regenerating the
corresponding support template based on the parametric CAD modeling technique.

A prototype of basic design module of the automated dedicated fixture configuration design
system has been developed on a commercial CAD platform by incorporating C++ with an
application programming interface (API). The system consists of four basic modules: 1)
component info input;
2) automated design; 3) design modification; and 4) design output. Figure 13 shows a fixture
design
example designed by using this prototype
system.

a Design result b Component layout

Figure 13. Example of dedicated fixture configuration design

SUMMARY

An automated dedicated fixture configuration design system has been developed for
industrial applications. Based on the dedicated fixture structure analysis, the design process is
divided into two stages: basic design and detail design. In basic design, according to the fixture
design requirements, standard locators/clamps are automated selected with type and dimensions,
customized supports are generated based on a selection of predefined support templates and a
dimension adjustment from the build-in relationships in the support models, and finally all the
fixture components are assembled onto a fixture base in terms of specified assembly constraints.
A design example is presented. The detail design will be presented in a separate paper.