Designing Modular Fixture for Automotive Condenser Inspection

Abstract

In the automotive component manufacturing industry, the automotive parts must be produced with high precision according to the standard. And, to achieve such a goal, inspection fixtures are typically used as final inspection tools. These fixtures are highly specialized that often match only one stock-keeping unit of the condenser (SKU) each. Based on such a fact, as the number of SKUs rises, the number of fixtures produced would be inevitably increased, along with the resources required for fixture production, storage space, and maintenance. In order to address such issues, we explore and develop a new fixture design that turns specialized fixture into a more flexible one consuming less resources. This new fixture design is based on a modular fixture concept, where various fixture designs are proposed; but, the 3-level one is selected as it provides the best results compared to the rest and the original design. We find that this new design could potentially reduce the production cost by 240,000 Baht per year and save up to 29 cubic meters.