Configurable fixtures can eliminate dedicated tooling and the associated design, production, maintenance storage, and handling costs. Our solutions result in impactful ROI and gains in efficiency and productivity.
Robotic or configurable fixtures provide effective means to support a variety of parts for processing in a system. Unlike dedicated part specific tooling, Configurable Fixtures support families of parts and reduce or completely eliminate the need for storage, handling and maintenance of dedicated tools. PAR can design and develop robotic or configurable fixtures to address your full range of parts while ensuring the fixture is appropriate for your manufacturing process.
PAR has developed various Adaptive manufacturing strategies that utilize various patented techniques to enable the production of critical components and assemblies with exacting tolerances despite uncertainties of location, size, contour, and other factors. From mapping as-built conditions and morphing tool paths to match, utilizing integrated process heads, to robotic and configurable fixtures. When the magnitude of the uncertainty is larger than the tolerances required, PAR patented techniques and optimized system designs provide the solution for automating the manufacturing process.
A fixture design was developed for a family of parts. While all similar in function, the parts were widely diverse in length, height, width and angularity. There are over 800 unique parts processed on the robotic fixture. The fixture is comprised of 38 individual FANUC LR Mate robots that were programmed to unique positions and poses based on local part geometry. The robotic fixture accommodates variations within the part family, while maintaining the integrity of the part to its nominal contour.