3D Printed Assembly & Check Fixtures:
Most manufacturers use fixtures—and for good reason. They increase the accuracy, precision, reliability, and interchangeability of finished parts. Traditionally fixtures have been CNC machined, but industrial-grade 3D printing (additive manufacturing) is becoming more popular for this type of work. 3D Printed fixture can be very useful for manufactures trying to improve their manufacturing processes. Some of the advantages over traditionally manufactured fixture are:
- Quick to manufacture: from design to delivery most fixtures can be delivered inside of 2 weeks.
- Machinable for tight tolerances: when the standard tolerances for 3D printed parts are not good enough to meet the need for you fixture (especially inspection fixtures) Nylon and TPU can be machines after printing to greatly improve accuracy where needed while still giving you amazing design freedom on the 3D printed parts.
- Strong and Wear Resistant: the Nylon and rubber materials we use to print fixture components are extremely strong and wear resistant. We have printed fixture we have made for customer will MILLIONS of parts produced across them and they are still going strong.
- Unlimited design freedom: have a complex part you are tying to hold on to? No problem, with additive manufacturing you are not limited to geometries that can be machined or fabricated. Your imagination is the limitation in most cases.
- Integrate purchased parts: need to add things like DESTACO clamps, locator pins, bushings, or base plates? No problem, you can mount all of these to your 3D printed components using standard fasteners.
- You can even add threads or dowel holes into your printed parts to save secondary operations after printing.
- Class A safe: have parts with painted, chrome, or mold in color finishes that you do not want to damage? The parts can be printed in 95A Durometer TPU rubber that will protect the parts finishes while still being structural enough to hold up to lots of use and abuse.
- ESD Safe: holding a part that has sensitive electronics in it? The fixture can be printed with ESD safe material so that it can slowly dissipate built up static electricity that could be harmful to the part its being used to manufacture or inspect.
- Lightweight: Nylon and TPU are half the weight of Aluminum and can be honeycombed or latticed to remove even more mass if needed while preserving strength. 3D Printed Fixtures are much easier to carry around on a factory floor to bring them to where the work actually needs to be preformed.
- Cost effective: It is our experience here at F3DP that 3D Printed fixtures are usually more cost effective then a traditionally machined fixture, especially for smaller parts.
Need help getting your fixture designed for 3D Printing or just have some question about how to design for additive manufacturing? We can help you out with that too!
Assembly Fixture Examples:
Inspection Fixture Examples:
More information on 3D Printed Fixtures can be found here:
- HP Multi-Jet Part Design Guide
- 3D Printing for Automated Equipment
- 3D Printed Welding Fixtures
- 3D Printed End of Arm Tooling