Teaching work-holding in undergraduate classes

Work holding is an important process in machining and requires several months of intense learning to master it. But knowledge of the process is essential for a manufacturing engineer and therefore should be taught to students in the undergraduate courses. Work holding is an important part in manufacturing planning and is readily affected by the manufacturing process chosen. It influences the material-form choice and the number of settings required. In order to educate this important activity to the students an exercise that can demonstrate all these aspects was needed. This paper describes such an exercise, the machining of the same component where different manufacturing conditions dictated the choice of different forms of material, machines and methods of holding the work. The exercise permitted the use of both jig and fixture and thus it is unique. It enabled the students to understand the use of jigs, fixtures and standard work holders like the three jaw chuck and the vise. It also describes the assessment and students' feedback.