KARPAGAM INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, COIMBATORE 105

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

IV YEAR - MECH

VII - SEM

ANSWERS UNIVERSITY QUESTION PAPER NOV/DEC 2014

ME2029 - DESIGN OF JIGS, FIXTURES AND PRESS TOOLS
PART - A
1. A situation in which a workpiece has more locating points than it
actually needs. Redundant locators increase the chances of errors in
manufacturing processes.
2.

3. A fixture is a work holding device which is used to locate, support and

hold the workpiece securely fastened to the machine table during the
machining operation. It does not guide the tool.
Example: Turning Fixtures, Milling Fixtures
4. Indexing jigs are used to drill series of holes in a circle on the
circumference of a cylindrical workpieces. The indexing plate with a
plunger is required in the indexing jigs.
5. A press is a metal forming machine tool used to shape or cut metal by
applying force to carry out the various sheet metal operations.

6. Centre of pressure is a point, in which the summation of shearing

forces will be symmetrical. This point is the centre of gravity of the line
that is the perimeter of the blank.
7. The tendency of the metal tries to resume its original position causing
a decrease in bend angle known as spring back.
8. A die in which a cutting operation is combined with non-cutting
operation is referred to as a combination die. The cutting operations
may include blanking, piercing, trimming and cutoff and are combined
with non-cutting operations which includes bending, extruding,
embossing and forming.
9. The cutting of metal between die and punch is a shearing process in
which the metal is stressed in shear between two cutting edges
beyond its ultimate strength.
Sizing is the secondary operation in which the extended portions are
removed in the blank.
10.
Poka Yoke or mistake proong or fool-proong, is a Japanese word for the
concept of using simple mechanisms to prevent mistakes from being made by workers
without any special effort. The failsafe devices are called as Poka yokes.
PART B
11. (a) PRINCIPLES OF LOCATION:
Location must be related to the dimensional requirements stated on
the workpiece drawing.
It is preferable to use a more accurately machined surface than a less
accurate surface for location.
The workpiece should be prevented from moving along and rotating
around the X, Y and Z axes.
Location system should facilitate easy and quick loading and unloading
of the workpiece.
Redundant locators must be avoided.
Location system should positively prevent wrong loading of the
workpiece by foolproofing.

DIFFERENT LOCATING METHODS:

A workpiece can be located from:
1. Plane surface
2. Cylindrical surface
3. Profile surface
Location from Plane Surface
A plane surface can be located with three points on the surface. A
rough un-machined surface can be located with three location pads having
point contact. This can be done by providing three location pins having
spherical surfaces at the locating points as shown in Figure. The pins should
be spaced as widely as possible for more accurate location. The height of the
collar of the pins should be equal so that the located surface is parallel to the
base plate resting on the machine table. Although the three pins can define a
plane, they cannot provide adequate support to the workpiece during
machining operation such as milling. Additional adjustable supports are
necessary to prevent distortion and vibrations in the workpiece during
clamping and machining. The number of adjustable supports would depend
upon the shape, strength and size of the workpiece.

Locating Plane Surface

Locating cylindrical surface:
In the cylindrical location, the workpiece surface or the support surface
may be circular. Locating the cylindrical surface is the effective and most
common method of the location. Since 9 degrees of freedom is arrested by
using the cylindrical locating pins and the remaining 3 degrees of freedom is
arrested by the clamping which is shown in the figure. The cylindrical
locators may be short or long. Most it is kept as short as possible to prvent
buckling during loading and unloading.

Locating cylindrical surface using cylindrical surface

The cylindrical surfaces of the workpieces are usually located using V

Blocks. The methods of V location are shown in the figure.

Methods of V Location
Locating profile surface:
The irregular profile surfaces are located by pin and buttons. Flat
buttons or rest button is used when the surface is flat. Spherical radius
locators are used when the part is rough and irregular. The screw button
locators are used when a through hole is not possible to locate and therefore
it provides a way for easy loading and unloading.

Full Nest

Partial Nest

The profile of the worpiece can be located by providing a pocket or nest

around the profile of the workpiece. The inside profile of the nest matches
with the outside of the workpiece. The height of the nest should ne lesser
than the workpiece to permit grip over the workpiece for unloading.
Sometimes partial nests are also used for easy unloading.
11. (b) MECHANICAL ACTUATED CLAMP
Strap clamp:
The simple and most probably used clamp is the strap clamp which is
shown in the figure. These clamps employ the principle of levers. Numerous
styles and shapes are available as standard parts to suit the different
applications. The straps clamps can slide onto and off the workpiece for easy
loading and unloading of the workpiece. A compression spring between the
base and the clamping bar holds the bar in position when the clamping knob
is released. The pillar or heel pin rests in the groove on the underside of the
bar to prevent it from turning when the clamping knob is loosened. A
hardened washer is used next to the clamping knob to prevent it from
rubbing the bar.

Strap Clamp
HYDRAULIC CLAMP:
Hydraulic actuated clamping systems are established in modern
machine tools. Today hydraulic clamping actuators are supported by external
pressure supply and controlled by machine control. The hydraulic actuators
are usually connected to the external pressure supply by horses, pipes and
coupling systems. These components have drawbacks concerning flexibility,
leakage and system bleeding at change of attachment.
Unlike air, hydraulic oils are almost incompressible consequently,
variation in load does not cause much speed variation in hydraulic systems.
It can be minimized further to be almost negligible by using pressure
compensated flow control valve. Operating pressure of hydraulic system
ranges from 7 to 250 atmospheres. High pressure permits use of small
compact cylinders to develop high force. However, hydraulic cylinders are
slow in operation in comparison with pneumatic actuators. Oil is circulated in
the system through a reservoir. Generally every machine or fixture would
have its own individual hydraulic reservoir and power unit. Large centralized
power units are rarely used. Hydraulic operation of a mechanism generally
requires substantial investment for hydraulic power pack and cylinders. The
figure shows the Hydraulic supports.

Hydraulic Clamp

12. (a)DIFFERENCE BETWEEN POT AND POST JIG:

Pot jigs are used for drilling holes in circular components, which have
both internal and external diameters. The body of the jig is like a pot. The
workpiece is located inside the pot of the jig.
The post jigs are primarily used to machine parts that cannot be easily
machined by plate type tooling. Sizes are varied according to the size of the
workpiece.

ANGULAR POST JIG:

Angular Post Jig

The angular post jigs are primarily used to machine parts that cannot
be easily machined by plate type tooling. Sizes are varied according to the
size of the workpiece. The analysis and evaluation of the workpiece before
designing the angular post jig. The figure shows the angular post jig. It is a
welded construction. These are jigs are mostly used to make the intricate
angular holes. The drill bush is a renewable type extended drill bush, it
prevents the bending of the drill bit, and yet allow removal of the workpiece.
The clamping nut is of the quick action type because smallness of the
workpiece demands that the nut be removed when the workpiece is
removed.
12. (b) Face Plate Fixture
Face Plate Fixture can be used conveniently for machining of simple
and small components. Addition of locators and clamps on face plate help in
quick location and clamping of workpiece as shown in Figure. Face plate
fixture is useful for facing number of workpieces simultaneously on the lathe.
Face plate fixture A lathe face plate fixture is fastened to a standard
clamping and locating devices. It may be similar in appearance to a will
fixture, but it is quite different in that it is rotating around the lathe axis. The
base of the fixture may be a flat plate as shown in Figures.

Simple Face plate fixture

Face plate fixture for inline boring of a non cylindrical component

It is usually located on the face plate by means of two dowel pins and
secured by cap screws inserted through the face plate by means of two pins
into tapped holes in the fixture or by T bolts inserted into T-slots in the face
plate. Sometimes face plate fixtures with circular bases have indicating
grooves or accurately machined holes for the purpose of aligning the fixture
by a dial indicator. High speed turning operations require that the fixture and
workpiece be dynamically balanced as accurately as possible low and
medium speed turning operations do not require such exact balancing
methods and reasonably accurate static balancing is satisfactory.

13. (a) PRESS ACCESSORIES:

Generally, the presses used in sheet metal working operation consists
of following table with frame, base, T-slots, bolster plate, ram, guide,
flywheel and connecting rod or hydraulic piston cylinder assembly punch and
die. In addition to the above components, some other accessories also used
to increase the rate of production and quality of products. The following are
some accessories used in press tools.

Strip feed system

Gripper rail system

Feed devices used to convey single workpiece in steps

Edge cutter

Spring actuated strip guide

Strip Feed System: In automatic piercing and blanking press, the
metal strip is automatically fed from roll of sheet metal. Strip feed system

consists of two pairs of rolls, which feed the stock by friction. An eccentric
shaft fitted with the crank of the press or a hydraulic system drives the pairs
of roll. A simple stock feed system using eccentric crank is shown in the
figure. When the ram crank moves from Top Dead Centre (TBC) to Bottom
Dead Center (BDC), the eccentric crank is fed the stock into the working
zone. When the ram moves from BDC to TDC, a freewheeling clutch attached
in the roller is relieved the stock.

Strip Feed System

Gripper Rail System

Gripper Rail System: Gripper rail systems are used in deep drawing
transfer presses. During deep drawing, the total depth of cup is obtained in
more than one stage. The gripper rail system is used to transfer the drawn
cup from one stage to another. It consists of a set of gripper jaws shaped to
the cup geometry of the stages mounted on a moving rail. After drawing,
grippers are closed and grasped the drawn cups and transferred to the next
stages. Then the cups are released into the dies and retracted back to the
previous stage.
Feed devices to convey single workpieces in steps: To convey
single workpieces, rotary indexing tables are also used. The workpieces are
placed in the front area of the table, outside the danger zone, either
manually or with a feed device. The rotation, in steps (one move per press
stroke), is produced by a Geneva drive and transmitted from the crankshaft
by means of toothed and bevel gears.
Edge cutter: The edge cutter provides the most accurate feed control.
It is an extra shearing punch which notches the edge of the strip of sheet.

The sheet is pushed against the stopper in the tooling (shown in Figure).
When the ram moves downwards, the edge cutter notches a piece of stock of
width b and length L at the edge of the strip. The sheet can now be pushed
forwards by this length L (strip feed measurement). Depending on the
precision of the feed and material use of the strip (how it is used), one or two
edge cutters are employed.

Edge cutter

15. (a) (i) SWAGING DIES:

Reducing or changing the cross sectional area of the metal is known as

Swaging operation. Swaging, also known as rotary swaging or radial forging
is a forming process that reduces or increases diameter of tubes and/or rods.
This is done by placing the tube inside a die that applies a compressive force
by hammering radially. Swaging is performed in a die-closing swaging
machine. Figure below shows the die closing swaging machine and
demonstrates how the radial hammering is obtained. In rotary swaging, the
workpiece is assembled inside a slotted spindle, such as jaws in a lathe head,
is shown in figure.

Swaging Dies
The spindle with die blocks rotates inside a ring with series of backer
rollers. When the die blocks occupy the space between rollers, die blocks are
moved out from center and will open the die. When the die blocks move to
the place of backer rollers, die blocks move towards the center and close the
die opening. It gives the radial movement to the dieblocks (hammering).
Radial forces are applied with short strokes. The continuous radial
hammering around the periphery of the rod forms the grooves on the rod
surface. The dies with only radial movement without rotary movement form
flat shapes. Screw driver blade is an example for the swaging without
rotating the die blocks.
The tube swaging process can be used to reduce or increase the
diameter of the tube. This is also similar to rod swaging. The only difference
is to control the tube thickness of a governing mandrel used inside the tube.
Figure shows below, the tube swaging process. From the figure we can
understand that when the diameter gets reduced without mandrel, the
thickness of the wall is increased in the die gap. The thickness of the wall can
be controlled by placing a andrel inside the tube. It also shows the governing
of wall thickness by a mandrel. When a mandrel is used, the final thickness
of the tube depends on the mandrel diameter. The mandrels with external
features produce the tubes with internal grooves or shapes. The internal

shapes that can be obtained in a tube with different shaped mandrels are
shown in the figure.

Tube Swaging dies

Various Cross-sections of
mandrels

Applications of swaging process:

1. Producing gun barrels
2. Tubes with splines or square or hexagonal opening
3. Screw drivers
15 (a) (ii) RECENT TRENDS IN TOOL DESIGN:
Tool design is the process of designing and developing the tools,
methods
and techniques required to improve the productivity and
efficiency of
manufacturing. High production cost, close competition
and high investments have forced Industries to identify new materials and
production methods to outperform in the market. Industrial periodicals are
regularly publishing on cost cutting
methods
and
time
saving
procedures.
Some of the major areas of the present day
focus are:
I. Use of computer aids for sheet metal forming analysis.
2. Designing of tooling for numerically controlled machines.
3. Setup reduction for work holding.

4. Single minute exchange of dies to reduce tool changing

time.
5. Poka Yoke or Mistake proofing for safe design and usage
of tooling.
15 (b) (i) COMPUTER AIDS FOR SHEET METAL FORMING ANALYSIS:
Sheet metal parts are characterized by its complicated shapes. Sheet
metal forming operations are conducted close to the failure limit and
therefore, small changes in conditions and properties of material can cause
large changes in failure rates. Before deciding the forming process and tools,
the tool designer has to determine whether the sheet metal can be formed
into desired shapes without failure or not. Formability of the sheet metal is
an important factor to be considered during the sheet metal forming
analysis.
Formability is the ability of the sheet metal to undergo the desired
shape change without failure. Forming limit diagram (FLD) is a classical tool
used to analyze the formability of sheet metals. The sheet metal is marked
with a grid pattern of circles using electrochemical or photo-printing
techniques. The blank is then stretched over a punch and the deformation of
the circles are observed and measured in regions where failure (necking and
tearing) occurred. After deformation, the circle becomes as an ellipse. The
major and minor axes of the ellipse which represent the major and minor
strains after forming is shown in the figure. The major axis represents the
major strain and the minor axis represents the minor strains experienced by
the plate at the circle.

Strain of sheet metal forming process

Forming limit diagram (FLD) is the graph plotted between major strain
and minor strain. Before the use of computer in sheet metal forming
analysis, Engineers and Industrial practitioners used FLD to analyze the
formability of different materials for various thicknesses.

Nowadays, the sheet metal designers use computer aids for the most
of activities in sheet metal forming, such as designing, drafting, optimizing
and formability analysis. The following are the functions of computer in sheet
metal forming:
1. to compute the blank size fir bent, formed and/or drawn
workpiece.
2. to optimize the sheet strip layout
3. to select the appropriate press tool to be used.
4. to decide the position of punch and shank centers
5. to compute the shear force and sizes of die, stripper, screws
6. to draft the assembly drawing, bill of materials and detailed
drawing.
7. to analyze the forming behavior of sheet metal.
Many softwares are used in sheet metal forming analysis. LS-Dyna
solver, HyperFormOne_Step, ARGUS are some of the commonly sed software
forsheet metalforming analysis. The sheet metal rming analysis consists of
the following steps.
1. Solid modeling
2. Determination of 3D coordinates of the component's surface
3. Strain distribution analysis
4. Thickness reduction analysis.
solid model of sheet metal parts to be formed can be modeled using
the CAD software programs, such as Unigraphics, Catia, or SolidWorks. The
solid model is analysed by any one of the above said sheet metal forming
analysis software.
15 (b) (ii) TOOLING FOR NUMERICAL CONTROLLED MACHINES:
Numerically controlled machines have not removed the need for
workholders, only the need for complex and expensive jigs and fixtures. The
trend is away from single-purpose tooling and toward multipurpose, universal
workholders.
Numerically controlled machines have forced the tool designer back to
the basics of jig and fixture design. Whereas with other machines only a
single surface can be machined at one time, numerically controlled machines
can machine several surfaces in each setup. Whereas conventional machines
require detailed and repeated tool referencing, numerical control requires
only initial referencing to the workholder. Whereas the goal of conventional
tool design was to transfer the needed accuracy from the operator to the
fixture, numerically controlled machines transfer the required accuracy from
the fixture to the machine tool. All of this, coupled with the speed, precision,
and repeatability of numerical control, has challenged the tool designer as
never before.

The primary function of workholders for numerically controlled

machines is holding and locating the part, there is no need for elaborate,
expensive toolsThe most popular form of workholder used with N/C machines
is the strap clamp and block is shown in the figure. This form is the most
versatile and the least expensive. Strap clamps used for numerical control
applications are usually hand-operated rather than power-operated. For
automated production lines, however, power clamps reduce the clamping
time and speed up production.

Strap clamp and Block

Another variation of this tooling method for numerically controlled
machines is the universal holding fixture (shown in the figure). This tool is
used to provide a permanent mount for jigs and fixtures used on N/C
machine tools or machining centers. The universal holding fixture consists of
two major parts: the cast body of the fixture and the tooling plate. The cast
body is accurately machined and provides the required support for the
machining operation as well as orienting the fixture either horizontally or
vertically. The tooling plate is used as a base plate for the jig or fixture and is
accurately aligned and mounted on the universal holding fixture by means of
the two dowel-pin locators and the sockethead cap screws. In use, the only
part of these fixtures

Universal holding fixture for numerical controlled machines