Machining is typically the go-to method for making workholding fixtures. For example, a soft jaw is a fixture used for an oddly shaped part that can’t easily be held with standard clamp-up tools. That usually means the soft jaws have to be custom machined. But when all your CNC machines are backlogged with more pressing jobs, what do you do? Let’s take a look at how one innovative company solved the problem.
East/West Industries is a successful contractor in the competitive aerospace industry, supplying manufacturers like Boeing and Lockheed Martin with parts and subassemblies. But as Mike Vetter, East/West’s director of product development, highlights in this video, meeting production schedules amid ever-increasing customer demands is a real challenge. He points out how an increased need to make soft-jaw workholding fixtures fostered a cycle of trying to justify new machines for increased capacity. But that poses additional challenges with space constraints, cost, and a dwindling skilled labor base.
In this short video, Vetter identifies 3D printing as the solution. While that may be a paradigm shift for some, it clearly shows there’s a time and place when 3D printing is a better alternative to traditionally machined fixtures.
In an upcoming post, we’ll go deeper into the actual savings East/West Industries experienced using 3D printed soft jaws.
