Adaptive fixturing of non-rigid workpieces for coordinate measurements

Abstract

The paper presents a new method of fixturing non-rigid workpieces during their measurements using a coordinate measuring machine. The new fixturing method consists in the use of active supports and an algorithm for optimal location of active supports. In order to experimentally verify the proposed method of fixturing non-rigid elements experimental and simulation studies are presented. The use of the developed adaptive fixturing allowed for an eight-fold reduction of the error associated with gravitational interaction. The adaptive fixturing method is fully scalable and can also be used in the case of large-sized workpieces.