Watch Innovative Fixturing Makino demonstrates the latest techniques and technologies in fixturing. Check out presentations on fixture economics, fixture design, modular fixturing, new technology in CNC workholding as well as case studies of shops using innovative fixturing.
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You're looking at a solid drawing, solid model drawing of this particular fixture. This is a steering knuckle, also over a million parts per year in production volume. Again, we went with an eight-position hydraulic fixture. These are aluminum knuckles and there are three different part numbers that have to run on this particular fixture. The use of expanding locators in the varying bores needed to be used because of the tight tolerances that were held back to the main boar diameter. And then we also had to incorporate a tool-less change over. Now what that means, a tool-less change over, the operator was not allowed to use a Allen wrench or any type of wrench whatsoever in order to do the change over from Part A to Part B to Part C, so we incorporated on this thing. On the swing clamps near the bottom of the fixture you can see fixture pin, a pull pin, where the operator would pull that pin out, slide that swing clamp arm off of the U-shaped detail, stick another swing clamp on there of a different length and different make-up for the change over for the other part. We also had locators underneath the part that were on a, on a turning disk. There was a spring-locked, the operator would pull this disk towards him, rotate it 120 degrees, and it would snap back in position at a different locator height. So the use of the tool-less changeover saved the company from having to call over a toolmaker every time that he needed to run a batch of B parts when he was running A parts or C parts running B parts. So using tool-less change over helped the customer run smaller batches in continuous change of part numbers through the system.

This also is an example of what we call at Makino the MMC, which is basically a flexible machining system where you have remote palletized fixtures. There is a single operator stand in this system that the operator loads and unloads fixtures that services four different machines in the cell. A rail-guided vehicle brings the fixtures from the machine to this load/unload station where the operator does his loading and unloading, clamps the fixture up with a through-pallet auto couple system. The through-pallet auto coupling system is an automatic hydraulic connection that comes up from the bottom underneath the pallet and connects with the fixture, injects the hydraulics into it, and then drops back out of the way; the hydraulics are locked into the fixture with a check valve and accumulator. And then the rail-guided vehicle would then deliver these fixtures to whatever machine was calling for the next loaded fixture.