Bp. Bandyopadhyay et al., DEVELOPMENT OF A FIXTURE-FREE MACHINING CENTER FOR MACHINING BLOCK-LIKE COMPONENTS, Journal of materials processing technology, 39(3-4), 1993, pp. 405-413
The cost of designing and manufacturing fixtures constitutes a major f
actor in the FMS-type unattended operation of machining centers. The e
fficiency of operation of an FMS can be enhanced greatly by the develo
ping of a fixture-free machining center, The concept of such a ''fixtu
re-free'' machining center for the machining of block-like components
has been developed and is presented in this paper. This machining cent
er, supported by an automated CAM capability, feeds bar-form material
automatically and positions it for unattended machining of all of the
six faces of block-like components.