Experimental design and investigation of a pin-type reconfigurable clamping system for manufacturing aerospace components

This paper presents an experimental design and evaluation of a pin-type universal clamping system. The clamping system is designed for holding complex-shaped aerospace components, such as turbine blades, during machining processes. The experimental investigation is performed by comparing the pin-type clamping system with a dedicated clamping system during the machining of aluminium and steel parts. Force signals are monitored during machining. The experimental results are presented and compared with a dedicated clamping system. From the comparison, the performance of the clamping system is discussed. The results provide an evaluation of the designed pin-type clamping systems for machining operations. The results prove that the pin-type clamping system can be reconfigured for machining different complex shaped components with performance comparable with a dedicated clamping system.