Economics of Sacrificial Fixturing for CNC Machining and Rapid Manufacturing

This paper presents a fixturing method for sacrificial fixturing machining using CNC equipment. The focus of the paper is not on the method itself, but on the economics of sacrificial fixturing CNC machining, which defines the domain of use for the results described in the paper. The paper presents an economic model of machining, and then analyzes the use of the method as a function of: the number of parts to be produced, the ratio of material removed to final part volume, the number of features on the part, and the basic part geometry. We conclude that sacrificial fixturing is a very practical method that should be seriously considered when machining small batches of parts, rapid prototyping with CNC machining and parts with some particular geometric characteristics.