Development of Welding Fixture on Release Welding Machine

Abstract

Increasing demand of Moulded case circuit breakers and competition has Made it inevitable today to aim for the maximum productivity achievable i.e., to maximize the output, meeting the required functional and dimensional accuracies. One of the ways of improving productivity when same operations are being done repetitively is through the use of fixtures. Fixtures not only increase the output but also increases accuracy. Although fixtures are costly to manufacture in long run these reduce production costs by a significant amount by minimizing the wastage of time and material. A properly designed fixture can negate the need for skilled labor or any complex equipment, thus reducing the cost of production. Thus, many manufacturing companies are investing in fixtures to meet their demands This project aims at designing fixtures for different components produced in the switchgear department of L&T Vadodara, which is machined on a Vertical milling machine following the various principles of fixture design. The proposed fixture would only increase productivity by around 60 to 80%

The fixtures are designed such that components having the same profile but different material properties can be machined on the same fixture. Cost estimation is done to check the feasibility of the fixture. Focus has also been given to motion economy which ensures minimum movement of the operator thus reducing defects due to operator error which results from fatigue and other inaccuracies. Tolerances have been accounted for to avoid any major deviation in dimensions and operator safety has been addressed to minimize accidents during manufacturing.

It is worth nothing that development of fixture has resulted in minimizing to redetection of release assembly 50% to 99%.

The cycle time of release assembly has been reduced from 25Second to 12second.