Chris Delwiche,
Senior, Engineering Technology and Management
Athens, OH 10 December 2015 –
As the semester comes to a close, I’ve spent my final weeks studying for exams as well as finishing up final projects. One of the classes I took this semester was ETM 3510, Production Tooling. In this class we learned how to design and build a jig or a fixture. These devices help to ensure repeatability of a process and that each part run is created the same.
This class helps us to better understand how a large batch of items can be manufactured with little to no variation, and is also crucial for our senior capstone. We start by thinking of a possible design and then making it in CAD. Any revisions are reflected in the technical drawing prints. We use these prints to create our fixtures to our predetermined specifications.
For the last couple of projects, we were assigned to produce a physical fixture along with all of the technical drawings, parts, and documentation. These are the types of projects I really enjoy doing since we’re able to apply the methods learned in lecture into an actual product.
Fixture without part loaded:
Fixture with part and hole cut:
