Question

3) Discuss some general design considerations when making welding fixtures and also discuss some general clamping considerations when making welding fixtures.

Answer 1

General design considerations when making welding fixtures:

Fixture is a work holding device that holds ,supports and locate work piece for specific operation. Fixture need to be designed to facilitate the production of compenents in large quantities in greater degree of accuracy ,good quality and at a competitive cost. Few aspects that have to consider while designing a fixture are :

1:PRODUCTIVITY: it should process, load ,unload and clamp as quickly as possible. Interference with welding process as less as possible.

2:material properties:the level of efficiency depends upon thoughtfull design of fixture with optimum productivity. The selection of fixture material depends on welding process and welding application. Mild steel, high carbon steel,copper ,aluminium and stainless steel is generally used for fixtures.

3:Cost efficiency: keep the cost as low as possible while ensuring necessary operational requirement is fulfilled. material cost, maintainence cost and operating cost have to be considered while designing.

4:versality: it should be adaptive to different multiple welds without a need of multiple setups. The design need to be suitable for different joint types and joint processes .

5:thermal properties :thermal conductivity means a ability of a material to conduct heat. Copper and aluminum is often used as a heat sink because of their ability to conduct heat to large dustance and to spread over large surface area so that workpiece distortion get minimised.

General clamping considerations when making welding fixtures :

1:the clamping has to be suitable to reduce distortion.

2:the workpiece should be fixed at desired location and at right place without Moving.

3:the clamp shold be easy to use with minimum setup time and removal time.

4: the clamp has to be adjustable to different work pieces and welding process

5:the welding torch need to be moved freely ,otherwise there will be a error in process.

6: the material of a clamp should withstand elevated temperatures