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Workholding advancements have played an essential role in increasing manufacturing productivity and quality. Today's highest, most advanced form of workholder is the permanent fixture, tailored to hold a specific part or perhaps an entire family of parts.
Unfortunately, the leadtime and expense required to build a permanent fixture are sometimes hard to justify. General-purpose workholders—such as vises, chucks, and table-mounted clamps—can be ready for production on short notice, but they're primarily suited for short runs of basic parts. Luckily, there is another option: modular fixturing.
Modular-fixturing systems are not intended for every workholding operation, but when appropriate, they both increase production and reduce fixturing costs.
Definition
Modular fixturing is a workholding system comprised of a series of standardized components for building specialized workholders. A modular workholder is assembled from a variety of standard off-the-shelf base plates, tooling plates, supports, locating elements, clamps, and similar components. These components can be assembled in different combinations to build an unlimited variety of workholders.
The assembly process is quite simple. Components are designed to be used together, so they have identical hole patterns. To build a |
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workholder, the components are simply positioned as required and attached with locating or fastening screws. This simplicity reduces training time and permits technicians to begin building workholders almost immediately. Regardless of the manufacturing operations, a modular-fixturing system can provide workholders for almost any workpiece.
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| Figure 1: Typical components of modular-fixturing system. |
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