CONCEPTUALIZATION AND DESIGN OF AUTOMATED ADJUSTABLE COUPLING MECHANISM, IT'S INTEGRATION, INTERFACING & IMPLEMENTATION IN FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

Flexibility is the key factor in choosing a fixturing system. "The capability to undertake changes at any time on finished fixtures is extremely important". For maximizing throughput in high-mix, medium-batch processing, it's tough to beat the flexible manufacturing system (FMS) for efficiency. Today's FMC is well designed to move pallets into and out of machine tools, load and unload tools, verify part programs and tooling match, alert the operator of problems, and a host of other metal working functions. And so we need our fixtures or work piece mounting device to comply with today’s FMCs. The Automated adjustable coupling mechanism discussed in the forthcoming chapters has the ability to adjust its position in six degrees of freedom. This characteristic makes it suitable for automated fixturing and positioning applications in flexible manufacturing systems. AACM addresses all the fundamental issues needed to be consider for the next generation fixtures The means achieving micron level accuracy and repeatability with detachable fixture will be an enabling technology in future manufacturing processes given many sources of time variable errors in fixture alignment, the integration of actuator and sensors within fixtures will be necessary to achieve real time error compensation. The coupling mechanism utilizes adjustable parallel kinematics (to achieve accuracy) and the interface of three groove kinematic coupling (to achieve repeatability). The result is a new fixture technology, dubbed automated adjustable coupling mechanism (AACM). Its equipped to accept six independent actuation inputs that make it possible to obtain decoupled smallmotion adjustment in six axes. Implementation of the device in flexible manufacturing systems is discussed. A case study that examines the performance of the AACM in a next generation manufacturing process is included. Theoretical results from the case study show that the AACM can be used to satisfy the precision alignment and positioning requirement of next generation manufacturing industry.