Modular Fixture Design for BIW Lines Using Process Simulate

The unchangeable need of securing and locating parts during different manufacturing processes turned the fixtures to key elements in many part production industries. The iterations between design engineers and manufacturing planners because of late collision detection of the part/fixtures with robots cost a lot of time and money. The lead-time can be reduced by developing tools and/or methods for early verification of the fixtures during the simultaneous engineering phase. Different aspects of fixture designing, modeling and simulating is investigated as a base step to recognize the best practice work to do fixture planning in Process Simulate integrated PLM environment. The aim of the project is to use Process Simulate to design and validate modular fixtures at the same time and in a single environment. It also aims to investigate the possibility of adding kinematics, sensors, and actuating signals to the fixtures and utilize them to model the fixture behavior in a larger simulation study. The project narrows down its focus on the fixtures designed for robotic applications specifically in Automotive Body in White lines without losing generality. The document type stated at the title page and in the header of this page is master thesis work. iii Preface I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the people whose contributions and assistance helped tremendously in the completion of this research. I would like to show my appreciation to Dr. Fredrik Danielsson, my supervisor and advisor for his supports and guides. I would also like to thank Mr. Tobias Persson from SAAB for his arrangements and attentions. I also thank the great help offered by Dan Svensson from SAAB and Hans Hörfelt from Volvo Cars, which provide me information about MODFix project. Finally, I would also like to express my sincere thanks to all of my friends who have been helping me during the course.