Design and Simulation of Welding Fixture for D-pillar in BIW(Body in white)line

Abstract

The body of a vehicle is made up of several hundreds of stamped components which are joined together by spot welding process. Accurate production of the car body is essential if the automated assembly line is to fit parts within the required tolerance. Therefore welding fixtures are used to support, locate and clamp two or more panels of a car body in welding process, so that they will get welded accurately at the desired position. The lead-time can be reduced by developing tools and/or methods for early verification of the fixtures during the simultaneous engineering phase. The aim of this project is of this project is to develop and simulate a automated fixture, which need minimum cycle time, easy and less costly to manufacturer. The project report will also discuss other tools used in the assembly line such as welding guns, robotic arms and their end effectors (grippers). The process of fixture planning starts by analysing the inputs given by a vehicle manufacturer after which the 3-D modeling begins on a CAD environment as it helps me to analyse quickly the new designs for productivity and ensure that they conform to planning processes.3-D simulations of the fixture are carried out to detect collisions, checks reach ability and optimize cycle time.