Automated assembly is generally confined to mass production environments such as the manufacture of cars and white goods. Even in this environment high-level automated assembly is restricted to the OEMs where production volumes are high and flexibility and the ability to quickly reconfigure systems are not major drivers. In the aerospace industry the problem is further complicated by the move to thin walled monolithic parts and the increasing use of composite structures. Monolithic structures have been introduced to reduce the costs of assembling large numbers of components. Although the benefit of using monolithic parts is a large reduction in overall manufacturing costs the downside is a more difficult component to handle and assemble. In addition, there are thin walled components with sometimes-internal stresses and in our case made of nickel based alloys, which only can be cut with difficulties. Machining the flexible structure and maintaining close tolerance is difficult, transferring to assemble is difficult as well. Machining fixtures are used to locate and constrain a workpiece during a machining operation. To ensure that the workpiece is manufactured according to specified dimensions and tolerances, it must be appropriately located and clamped. Minimizing workpiece and fixture tooling deflections due to clamping and cutting forces in machining is critical to machining accuracy. An ideal fixture design maximizes locating accuracy and workpiece stability, while minimizing displacements. In this paper, a review of the state of the art approaches of Clamping modeling is provided. The current drawbacks of the existing approaches and the research areas to focus on in the near future are also identified.
['Jürgen Leopold']
Clamping Modeling - State-of-the-Art and Future Trends