Demonstrator 6: Adaptive Fixturing Device.

Workholding is very important for the performance of any machine tool. Fixtures affect the precision and integrity of the workpiece and are one of the biggest limitations of machine tools with regard to their productive flexibility. Manufacturers are aware of limitations of their fixtures caused by many reasons. Two of the limitations are: - Different shapes, dimensions and materials of the workpieces. This issues demand usually a lot of different components e.g. clamping jaws to adapt fixtures to a new workpiece. - The appearance of self exited vibrations (chatter) during the chip removal. These vibrations are closely linked to the damping of the structure of the fixture and the workpiece. Due to the wide range of workpieces and machine tools there are a lot of different designs and technical versions of fixtures. The aim of the demonstrator is to show the functionality and validity of the adaptive fixturing device under real working conditions in a machining center. The main idea is to align, clamp or damp different workpieces in a machining process using moveable rods to adapt the fixture to the shape of the workpiece. In the adapted position the position of the rods can be locked (to align the workpiece) or not (for only providing damping in the machining process). For the locking of the rods a magnetic field will be applied the block the magnetorheological fluid (MRF) inside the adaptive clamping device. With using the adaptive clamping device the clamping dampens the vibration during the cut.