Conceptualization of a Machining Fixture for Machining Cylinder Block on a Horizontal Machining Center

The machining operations post casting of cylinder blocks are traditionally performed at different stations of a shop floor. The cylinder block accounts for 20–25% of the total weight of an engine leading to increased time and man power during arrangement at different machining platforms. A horizontal machining center (HMC) can perform all these machining operations by virtue of its maneuverable tool magazine; the requirement is to develop a fixture to accommodate the same. The work in this paper demonstrates the conceptualization of a machining fixture to cater for all the three machining operations i.e., face milling, drilling and boring on a 4-axis HMC (Starrag IWK 7000). The machining forces were calculated and 3D realization of the fixture elements was done using PTC Creo 2.0. To ensure repeatability, standard fixturing elements were used. After manufacturing and dry run, it was seen that the cycle time for a single block is 4.4 min.