An integrated fixture planning system for minimum tolerances

Fixture planning is an important aspect of process planning. The steps involved in automatic fixture planning are manufacturing feature recognition, setup planning and fixture configuration planning. In the present work, an integrated setup and fixture planning system is developed for minimum tolerances at critical regions using a data exchanged part model as an input. A platform-independent STEP-based automatic feature recognition system that can recognize both design and manufacturing features, including intersecting features is implemented. An automatic setup planning module is developed for generating setup plans for complete machining of a given component. A fixture planning module is developed applying the criteria of uniqueness, stability, accessibility and tolerance minimization. A case study is presented to demonstrate the capabilities and integration between the various modules of the system.