Effect of fixture stiffness on the positioning error of the workpiece under machining and clamping forces

Abstract

In recent times, the manufacturing industries are struggling to identify ways of minimizing production costs. When a machining force is applied, an error occurs in the machined workpiece due to unavoidable conditions (like vibrations, the surrounding temperature, etc.) because of which tolerance is kept in the desired machining operation. This paper collaborates with this demand in such a way that it presents the simulation and analysis technique of calculating the deformations (which might occur as a result of machining operation) of a workpiece and locators beforehand. CATIA v5 is used for the designing phase of a workpiece, locators, surfaces (to hold the locators in the desired location), and clamps. In past researches, an analytical approach was used to identify the positioning errors of a workpiece. Also, a genetic algorithm approach was used to optimize the position of locators for less deformational error. Now, in this research work, the two placements of locators are taken as case studies and a machining force is applied on each point (P1, P2, P3, and P4) to identify the deformations of these four points on a workpiece, respectively. ANSYS (R19.1) is used for the analysis settings and simulation purposes.