Experimental Validation of Active Fixture Design Methodology

A design methodology for active and fully-active fixtures has been established previously. In this work the results of a part of the validation for the design are presented, namely the differences between two different layouts and the difference between application of an passive and active clamp. The test-bed consist of a reconfigurable fixturing system with an active clamp holding a thin-walled plate. For three cases passive and actively controlled clamping forces were exerted during a series of milling operations. These are (1) passive clamping at a suboptimal and (2) at the optimal position and (3) clamping with an actively controlled clamping force at the optimal clamping location. The previously proposed design procedure has been qualitatively validated since its predictions regarding optimal layout and adaptive clamping forces hold true, when comparing the surface finishes, which improve from case to case.