Flexible fixture design and automation: Review, issues and future directions

The cost of designing and fabricating fixtures can amount to 10-20% of the total manufacturing system costs. To reduce manufacturing costs, a fixture system is designed to be competent in fixturing as many workpieces as possible. In mass volume production, this can be achieved by fixturing a large quantity of the same kind of workpieces. In low-to-medium volume production, however, improvement of the flexibility of fixture systems becomes a favourable way to reduce the unit cost of product. This paper summarizes the latest studies in the field of flexible fixture design and automation. First, a brief introduction is given on this research area. Secondly, taxonomy of flexible fixture design activities is presented. Thirdly, the flexibility strategies based on the existing flexible fixture systems are discussed. Fourthly, the contributions on design methodologies and verifications are examined. Fifthly, advances on computer-aided design and see-up systems are summarized. Finally, some prospective research trends are presented.