Method of manufacturing precision parts with non-precision fixtures

A method of performing a manufacturing operation on a part, the method comprising the steps of:

• creating a numeric model of a part in a design location relative to a coordinate system of a machine tool;
• creating a numeric model of a fixture design having a plurality of physical contact faces for supporting the part in a design position;
• creating a tool path program for controlling the operation of the machine tool in the performance of a manufacturing operation on the part in the design position;
• manufacturing a fixture based upon the fixture design;
• installing the fixture in the machine tool;
• measuring the location of the plurality of physical contact faces of the fixture relative to the coordinate system of the machine tool;
• creating a numeric model of the location of the plurality of physical contact faces of the fixture relative to the machine tool coordinate system;
• nesting the model of the part into the model of the location of the plurality of contact faces;
• recording a transformation matrix describing the movement of a coordinate system of the part as it is moved during the step of nesting.

A method of performing a manufacturing operation on a part, the method comprising the steps of:

• measuring a plurality of physical parts;
• defining a nominal part representative of the plurality of physical parts;
• creating a numeric model representing the nominal part;
• creating a numeric model of a fixture design having a plurality of physical contact faces for supporting the nominal part in a design position relative to a machine tool coordinate system;
• creating a tool path program for controlling the operation of the machine tool in the performance of a manufacturing operation on the nominal part in the design position;
• manufacturing a fixture based upon the fixture design;
• measuring the location of the plurality of physical contact faces of the fixture relative to the machine tool coordinate system;
• creating a numeric model of the location of the plurality of physical contact faces of the fixture relative to the machine tool coordinate system;
• nesting the model of the nominal part into the model of the location of the plurality of physical contact faces;
• and
• recording a transformation matrix describing the movement of a coordinate system of the nominal part as it is moved during the step of nesting.

A method of manufacturing comprising the steps of:

• measuring the size and location of physical contact surfaces of a fixture relative to a coordinate system of a machine tool;
• creating a CAD model representation of the physical contact surfaces;
• creating a CAD model representation of a part;
• merging the CAD model of the physical contact surfaces and the CAD model of the part into the same CAD model wherein the physical contact surfaces are located as the fixture is positioned on the machine tool and the part is in an as-designed position;
• nesting the part representation into the contact surface representation;
• recording a transformation matrix describing the movement of the coordinate system of the part as it is moved during the step of nesting.