Direct Digital Manufacturing: Impact and Opportunity Part 4 - Jigs & Fixtures

     
Direct Digital Manufacturing: Impact and Opportunity 
Part 4-Jigs & Fixtures     
    Compliments of:      
                                    8081 Wallace Road               Eden Prairie, MN  55344           www.RedEyeOnDemand.com   1.866.882.6934 
  
By Todd Grimm  
  T. A. Grimm & Associates, Inc. 
www.tagrimm.com  
PREFACE
Direct digital manufacturing, otherwise known as rapid manufacturing, is a process that employs additive fabrication technology (aka rapid prototyping) to produce end-use items. Directly from CAD data, components are manufactured without molding, casting or machining. The impact of direct digital manufacturing is far-reaching, and the opportunities and advantages are extensive. This is why direct digital manufacturing is heralded as the next industrial revolution.
Since the earliest days of rapid prototyping, experts have envisioned the application of the technology in the manufacturing process, and the focus of this vision has been on the initial cost and time savings that are realized when tooling is eliminated. However, the relative impact pales in comparison to the wide ranging advantages that exist when rapid manufacturing is implemented.
Industry has failed to recognize many of the opportunities that direct digital manufacturing offers. Some will yield unprecedented efficiencies; some will generate annual Direct Digital Manufacturing savings that far exceed the cost of a tool; and others will facilitate new methodologies that address age-old "Rapid Manufacturing" has become a constraints. Direct digital manufacturing will benefit nearly generic term that is applied to any every discipline within a manufacturing organization, and it process that produces manufactured will change fundamental business processes. When adopted goods quickly. To avoid confusion, the en masse, it truly will be an industrial revolution. Society of Manufacturing Engineers has adopted a new term, direct digital In this series of white papers, the often unrecognized manufacturing. The association's benefits of direct digital manufacturing are disclosed to definition of direct digital reveal the huge potential that the process offers. Part 1 manufacturing is "The process of discussed the positive impact of a newfound freedom to going directly from an electronic, redesign or alter products while in production. In Part 2, the digital representation of a part to the discussion highlighted direct digital manufacturing's final product via additive elimination of design constraints imposed by conventional manufacturing. " processes. Part 3 investigated direct digital manufacturing's role as a bridge to production. Part 4 shows that the advantages described in the first three parts are also available for indirect manufacturing applications; "indirect" because the process is not used to make products. Instead, it is used to produce jigs & fixtures
[2] Compliments of RedEye On Demand (www.RedEyeOnDemand.com) Copyright © 2007 T. A. Grimm & Associates, Inc.
STATUS QUO
The prime concerns of manufacturing engineers are productivity and quality. The daily challenge is to ensure maximum production quantity while adhering to the specified quality standards. Jigs & fixtures are essential tools to achieve these aims.
Although they are essential and abundant, jigs & fixtures (collectively referred to as "fixtures") are virtually transparent when production is running smoothly. Few Definition: Jigs & fixtures are devices
people in a company give fixtures any thought until there is that locate and hold work pieces in
a quality problem or production delay. When a problem manufacturing. The characteristic that
does arise, their critical role becomes obvious, and distinguishes one from the other is
manufacturing engineering scrambles to devise a quick fix to that jigs guide or locate tools; fixtures
keep production rolling. However, new fixtures can take do not.
weeks to produce, so manufacturing engineering may be forced to put a bandage on the problem and hope for the best.
For a relatively simple fixture, the lead time can be hours, but making moderately complex designs can take two to four weeks. Typically, fixtures are made of plastic or metal and are produced by a machining or fabricating process. For these manufact... [download for more]