Design and Development of Welding Fixture on Release Welding Machine
摘要
In the competitive landscape of molded case circuit breaker production, the imperative of maximizing productivity while ensuring functional and dimensional precision has led to the strategic use of fixtures in repetitive manufacturing operations. Fixtures, though involving initial high costs, offer a long-term cost-effective solution by minimizing time and material wastage, reducing dependency on skilled labor, and complex equipment. This approach has garnered significant investment from manufacturing companies. This research project aims to design fixtures for switchgear components and optimize their machining on a vertical milling machine, projecting a 60–80% increase in productivity. These fixtures can handle components with similar profiles but varying materials, enhancing efficiency and resource conservation while being cost-effective. The motion economy reduces operator errors due to fatigue and inaccuracies, and strict tolerance management ensures precise dimensions and safety. Importantly, these fixtures have reduced release assembly defects by 50–99%, and the release assembly process time has been slashed from 25 to 12 s, highlighting the substantial benefits of this fixture-based manufacturing approach.