Make Tooling Fixtures Faster and Cheaper With Less Labor
08.04.2025
Fabricating tooling fixtures by machining metal parts and fastening or welding them together undoubtedly works. And for many manufacturers, the familiarity and predictability of this process prompts no need for change. However, if that’s your position, it could ultimately cost you lost time and added expense because better, more efficient methods are available.
The truth is the manufacturing industry doesn’t remain static, and those who stay with the status quo risk becoming stagnant and falling behind the competition. New technologies supplant older, less efficient ones, improving production methods and streamlining supply chains. 3D printing is one of them, but it’s not a new technology. In fact, it’s used every day by small machine shops to large corporations – in other words, your competition.
In short, 3D printing offers a more time and cost-efficient means of making tooling fixtures than machining them. And since change starts with awareness, this solution guide will show you the facts behind the promise and how manufacturers benefit by switching to 3D printed tooling.
Let’s start with a closer look at the drawbacks of making fixtures with conventional fabrication methods and compare that with how 3D printing offers a better solution.
Conventional Fabrication Drawbacks
In a recent survey, 77% of manufacturers believe that attracting and keeping workers will be a continuing problem.1 Individuals skilled in disciplines like CNC machining are becoming scarcer while the demand for their services only increases.
When was the last time your request to replace a tool or fixture was fulfilled the same day or the next? If you rely on conventional fabrication methods, you’re at the mercy of your internal machine shop or an outside vendor. There’s typically a backlog in both cases, and your order may take a week or more. How do scenarios like this impact your operation’s productivity?
The cost of machining, welding, and assembling tooling fixtures is typically higher than 3D printing. The reasons are related to greater material use (subtractive vs. additive), higher labor requirements (CNC programming, process monitoring, assembly), longer lead time (production impacts), and manufacturing volume (higher for lowervolume, custom production).
There are physical limitations on the complexity of the parts that can be made by machining. That limits your ability to create a fixture optimized for the task or the operator using it. Designing a fixture free from manufacturability constraints might allow you to make it lighter, fit better, work more efficiently, consume less material, and all of the above.
Fixtures made from machined metal are usually bulky and heavy. This also limits the capability for ergonomic design. When workers repeatedly move heavy tools, they run the risk of overuse injuries or strain induced by heavy loads.
Because of the challenges associated with traditionally fabricated tools and fixtures, their penetration on the shop floor is usually limited to critical or must-have applications. The result is another status-quo situation that overlooks the potential benefits more tools might achieve, leaving opportunity gaps where efficiency and productivity could be improved.
3D Printed Polymer Tooling Fixtures
Photo: BMW Automotive FDM Jigs and Fixtures Jig Hands; Source: Stratasys
The effort to learn and operate FDM® extrusion and P3 DLP (digital light processing) resin 3D printers are minimal compared to the skill requirements for machinists and CNC operators. Additionally, the printer’s operation doesn’t need oversight during the print operation. The only labor entails loading a build sheet or build tray before printing starts and removing the part when it’s done. Postprocessing is typically limited to removing support material from the part. And if water soluble support material is used, the process is handsfree.
FDM and P3 DLP 3D printing technologies can produce fixtures in hours instead of days, weeks, or longer with conventional machining. If you use in-house printing, the only lead time is waiting for the printer to finish the job.
Since tooling fixtures are usually a low-volume production item, their unit cost is driven by the infrastructure needed to make them. Low-volume production is cheaper with 3D printing because there is no ancillary tooling beyond the printer needed to produce the parts. If a fixture can be built overnight and deployed the next day, that quick turn can have a significant favorable influence by minimizing any production impact. And because 3D printing is an additive process, material is used only where necessary to make the part, avoiding waste.
3D printing isn’t limited by the physical and geometric constraints of machining. Organic and complex shapes are easily produced on a 3D printer due to the additive, layer-by-layer nature of the process. This means you can optimize fixture design to best fit the task, the operator, or both.
3D printed polymer fixtures can increase task efficiency for several reasons. They’re lighter than metal, which makes them easier to handle and maneuver. They can also be made as a single piece, avoiding assembly or reducing setup time. Although the time difference per individual task may be small, the total time saved on repetitive tasks adds up.
Ergonomic fixtures – lighter and designed to accommodate a human operator – can lessen the frequency of MSDs (musculoskeletal disorders). According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, MSDs are the largest category of workplace injuries and account for a third of worker compensation costs.2 And polymer 3D printed fixtures check both boxes on ergonomic capability due to design freedom and lighter weight.
If you can make tooling fixtures faster and cheaper with 3D printing compared to machining, you have an opportunity to increase their proliferation on the manufacturing floor. That increases workforce productivity, reduces downtime, and improves overall production efficiency.
But Can Plastic Do the Job?
Anyone new to 3D printing – particularly polymer 3D printing – usually has legitimate misgivings about its effectiveness in making things like manufacturing tools historically made from metal. However, a closer look at the facts is usually sufficient to demonstrate that 3D printing can do the job for the right applications.
Turn an Opportunity Cost Into Profit
Opportunity cost is simply the value of the option you do not choose in any decision you make. If you fabricate tooling fixtures from metal with traditional methods, the opportunity cost is the time and money you could save if you chose 3D printing instead. Here’s a simple example to demonstrate the point: Let’s say you need to fabricate 10 holding fixtures, and for simplicity, assume each fixture costs $500 in material and labor. In contrast, 3D printing these fixtures cost $250, driven primarily by material cost since labor is minimal. And although this is a fictional example, remember that the previous customer success stories demonstrated that 3D printing was the lower-cost option.
The difference between the two fabrication methods is $2500, representing the financial opportunity cost of staying with traditional fabrication. But there’s also a time opportunity cost. Whether it’s a vendor’s delivery lead time or the time it takes your technicians to machine and assemble them, that opportunity cost is what you could do with the time if you chose to 3D print them instead (remembering that 3D printing can provide much faster production capability with minimal labor).
The point of this message is to reinforce the opportunity 3D printed tooling fixtures offer as an alternative to machined metal fixtures. That opportunity has the potential to provide profit – financial and time-related. In today’s modern manufacturing world, the speed, efficiency and adaptability of your production process greatly influence your overall output and profitability. And 3D printing with FDM and P3 DLP technologies can provide those benefits.
Več informacij na:
izit.hr
www.stratasys.com