Fixtures accurately locate and secure a part during machining operations such that the part can be manufactured to design specifications. To reduce the design costs associated with fixturing, various computer-aided fixture design (CAFD) methods have been developed through the years to assist the fixture designer. Much research has been directed towards developing systems that determine an optimal fixture plan layout, but there is still a need to develop a CAFD method that can continue to assist designers at the unit level where the key task is identifying the appropriate structure that the individual units comprising a fixture should take. This research work details the development of a CAFD methodology (called CAFixD) that seeks to fill this hole in the CAFD field. The approach taken is to consider all operational requirements of a fixture problem, and use them to guide the design of a fixture at the unit level. Based upon a case-based reasoning (CBR) methodology where relevant design experience is retrieved and adapted to provide a new fixture design solution, the CAFixD methodology adopts a rigorous approach to indexing design cases in which axiomatic design functional requirement decomposition is adopted. Thus, the design requirement is decomposed in terms of functional requirements, physical solutions are retrieved and adapted for each individual requirement, and the design re-constituted to form a complete fixture design. Case adaptation knowledge is used to guide the retrieval process. Possible adaptation strategies for modifying candidate cases are identified and then evaluated. Case and adaptation strategy combinations that result in adapted designs that best satisfy the preferences of the designer are used as the final design solutions. Possible means of refining the effectiveness of the method include combining adaptation strategies and considering the order in which design decisions are taken.

"Fixtures form an important factor in traditional and modern flexible manufacturing systems, since fixture design directly affects manufacturing quality and productivity. Hence, it is necessary to evaluate quality of fixture design. The fixturing accessibility refers to machining feature accessibility and loading /unloading accessibility. The development of Computer Aided Fixture Design (CAFD) has simplified this task. Fixture design activities include setup planning, fixture planning and fixture configuration design. Fixture design verification comes next. Fixturing accessibility using Computer Aided Fixture Design is part of the verification process and has not received much attention till date. Machining feature accessibility analysis involves the evaluation of possible interference between fixture components and the cutting tool, which moves with pre-programmed tool path, while the loading and unloading accessibility relates to the ease with which the operator attaches/detaches the workpiece from the surrounding manufacturing environment. This research has three main focuses. The first focus is to evaluate machining feature accessibility, by integrating fixture designs in SolidWorks and the NC programming in Esprit. The main goals are evaluation of fixture design for any kind of interference between tool/workpiece/fixtures and enable Esprit to indicate interference, if any. The next step is to modify the fixture design accordingly and thus, finally obtain an interference free fixture design by reiteration. The second and third focuses deal with analysis of loading and unloading accessibility. A simulation based approach is applied to evaluate loading/unloading paths for different workpiece-fixture setups and checking interference in a dynamic mode. Then the third focus is to develop analysis method and criteria of comparisons of fixturing accessibility in different fixture designs. Thus, this research establishes methods of analysis for accessibilities in fixture design. Also, the guidelines for good fixture design will prove to be of great use to both, the beginners as well as the experienced fixture designers in this field. "

The presented diploma thesis deals with an innovative material test, so called Small Punch Test. There are main principles, advantages and limitations of the test stated in the thesis. There are stated also correlation procedures in order to obtain standard mechanical properties. A test fixture design has been done in order to perform test procedures at temperature range from 80 to 25 °C. Twelve experimental curves have been obtained from the test and typical quantities have been evaluated. The different accuracy of correlations with standard mechanical properties has been obtained using different correlation equations.