Is the Future Fixtureless?

In each episode of End of the Line, manufacturing veteran Jim Anderton expresses his compelling and unique opinions about the state of the manufacturing sector. He shares his thoughts and insights to help engineering and manufacturing professionals navigate through the challenges of world events, the blending old with new technologies, evolving processes, gaps in skilled labour, in an effort to help maximize productivity of their daily operations.

Jigs and fixtures form a considerable part of the cost and time to production for many manufacturing processes. But what if advanced robotics could reduce or eliminate jigs and fixtures in production? For complex assemblies and large weldments, the technology already exists and promises to reduce unit costs in both high mix low volume, and mass production applications. Jim Anderton looks at how it works.