Fixture is a work-holding or supporting device used in the manufacturing industry to hold the workpiece. Fixtures are used to securely locate (position in a specific location or orientation) and support the work, ensuring that all parts produced using the fixture will maintain conformity and interchangeability. The location of fixture elements is called as fixture layout. The fixture layout plays major role in the work piece deformation during the machining operation. Hence optimization of fixture layout to minimize the work piece deformation is one of the critical aspects in the fixture design process. Minimization the workpiece deformation which is the objective function in the present work is calculated using Finite Element Method (FEM) and the fixture layout is optimized using Discrete fixture layout optimization method (DFLOM), Continuous fixture layout optimization method (CFLOM) and Integrated fixture layout optimization method (IFLOM).The workpiece deformation is minimum in Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) based IFLOM is reported for the selected fixture. In this paper the PSO is used as an optimization tool to optimize the workpiece deformation.
Multimaterial layout optimization of truss structures via an improved particle swarm optimization algorithm
