Optimal Fixture Design Accounting for the Effect of Workpiece Dynamics

This paper presents a fixture layout and clamping force optimal synthesis approach that accounts for workpiece dynamics during machining. The dynamic model is based on the Newton– Euler equations of motion, with each fixture–workpiece contact modelled as an elastic half-space subjected to distributed nor-mal and tangential loads. The fixture design objective in this paper is to minimise the maximum positional error at the machining point during machining. An iterative fixture layout and clamping force optimisation algorithm that yields the "best" improvement in the objective function value is presented. Simulation results show that the proposed optimis-ation approach produces significant improvement in the work-piece location accuracy. Additionally, the method is found to be insensitive to the initial fixture layout and clamping forces.