Abstract: A workpiece is subjected to the cutting force and torques during machining. These external loads may result in the production accidents as well as the variation of workpiece position. The feasible clamping forces must be planned to stabilize the workpiece in the entire machining process. Therefore, a deterministic algorithm for the active region of clamping force of complex workpiece was proposed by taking the workpiece stability as a core. Firstly, according to the virtual work principle and the linear programming technology, a judgment algorithm was suggested for the stability analysis of workpiece. Secondly, on the basis of the surface mesh discretization method, a deterministic algorithm was further established to plan the active region of clamping force by analyzing the workpiece stability at all nodes in sequence. The proposed method can not only be utilized to verify the feasibility of the magnitude of clamping forces, but also determine the active region of clamping force.

Key words: machinofature technique and equipment, clamping force, workpiece stability, active region, surface mesh discretization, linear programming