Development of an Internet-enabled interactive fixture design system

Fixture design is a complex and an intuitive process. An efficient fixture design system is essential to cut costs and reduce the product lead-time. In today's manufacturing landscape, various computer-aided systems exist to aid the various stages of manufacturing. A fixture design system should be able to transfer information with the various other systems to bring about a seamless product design and manufacturing environment. A fixture design system should also be portable on different operating platforms. This paper addresses the development of an Internet-enabled interactive fixture design system. The Internet and the use of XML as a file format provide a means for the transfer of information and knowledge between the various computer-aided manufacturing systems. The system has been implemented using Java and is based on a three-tier Thin Client-Fat Server architecture. This ensures the platform independent performance of the system. A locating scheme independent interactive fixture design method has also been developed in this work for detailed fixture design. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.