Methodology for Mitigating the Impact of Adhesive Shrinkage for PAAW Technology Applications

Photo-Activated Adhesive Work-holding (PAAW) is a new fixture technology used to hold complex parts for tight tolerance manufacturing processes. Adhesive shrinkage during polymerization leads to a finite degree of workpiece distortion that may limit the tolerances that can be achieved during machining. This paper presents a measurement and analysis procedure that can be used to accurately assess the impact of polymerization shrinkage on workpiece shape distortion and rigid body displacement. Using this procedure, practitioners can quickly assess the impact of PAAW application variables for the purpose of mitigating shape distortion and rigid body rotation for an existing application. Furthermore this can be done using a workpiece with imperfect geometry and without machining the workpiece. This paper demonstrates the utility of this measurement and analysis procedure through a series of experiments applied to the bonding of a plate to a simulated PAAW transfer fixture.