ABSTRACT
Manufacturing planning makes a significant contribution to the production cycle. This chapter studies a feature-analysis-based fixture and setup plan ning system to enhance the flexibility of production systems and reduce the manufacturing planning time. Manufacturing features are defined where the operational information is included in feature descriptions. Manufacturing is modeled as a process of transferring a workpiece blank into the final product by subtracting manufacturing features from the workpiece model. A back ward reasoning method is developed for setup planning. Based on geometric and operational information, manufacturing features are identified and clus tered into setups with a certain sequence. Fixturing features are defined and locating surfaces are automatically selected based on accuracy relationships and geometric accessibility. Fixture configuration design is used to verify the setup planning. Examples are given to show the effectiveness of the method.
