Introduce additive manufacturing into your business.

We’ve worked with industrial partners across the United States for applications ranging from fixtures to more efficiently mask off parts, to packaging containers for more effective shipping, to fixtures which hold multiple parts at once for simultaneous processing. Use the arrows on either side to scroll through the gallery below and view some of our highest volume designs.

  • A small two-part case with o-ring slots to mask off a center bore in a small disc-shaped part for high-pressure sandblasting. Includes a third o-ring to fully seal off the threads and prevent leakage.

    This customer previously took one minute per part to mask with tape and cut out the center bore, and this design brought that to under 7 seconds.

  • A cap made of a flexible TPU material which slides onto the end of a microscope barrel in order to mask it for tungsten disulfide coating.

    Due to the irregular shape of the part, this customer had to use multiple pieces of tape and took over 5 minutes per part to mask. Now, these caps slide on instantly.

  • Plugboards which enable operators to process multiple small parts at once, and eliminate part droppage into processing equipment.

  • A carrier which can hold over a dozen bearing races for mass cleaning in solvent tanks. This design is glue-less and printed out of polypropylene in order to resist harsh chemical cleaners.

  • A stackable, scalable packaging case for long, thin machined parts which increased the density of parts per shipping box by 30% and reduced labor hours associated with packing & unpacking parts by over 50%.

  • A pair of flexible TPU endcaps which thread directly onto a part in order to mask threads from tungsten disulfide coating.

  • A fixture to mask off all but a threaded end of a long, thin rod for molybdenum disulfide coating. Using precisely-sized internal spacers and two different length caps, a total of four different length rods can be processed using the same base design.

  • A large case to mask off all but the ends of a highly irregular shaft for tungsten disulfide coating. Features two endcaps to seal off the top and bottom seams, and a flexible outer sleeve (not shown) to hold the case together and fully eliminate the use of tape.

  • A fixture meant to mask off the body of an irregularly shaped part, leaving only two cylindrical posts protruding from the sides for tungsten disulfide coating. These posts have a slot in the end face which is masked by reusable TPU caps which snap into the slot.

    The box features two O-rings and two print-in gaskets made of flexible TPU which are compressed by side clips in order to eliminate a seam present in their previous design.

  • A custom-shaped pull plug made of 60A shore hardness TPU, used to prevent molybdenum disulfide coating in a small, curved slot.

Why use Fixtures?

  • Increase Productivity & Reduce Labor Costs: Fixtures have the potential to save time and provide value at nearly every step of the coating process. Custom cases, endcaps, & plugs can be used to decrease the time taken to mask parts compared to tape, liquid masking, & other methods, while simultaneously decreasing cleaning times due to eliminating residual tape adhesive and human errors in tape/liquid mask application. Plugboards, racks, & other mounting fixtures can be used during processing to optimize part handling, improve consistency of processing, & increase overall throughput. Across all of the designs we’ve created, the average end-to-end labor time reduction is over 50%, and average rework rates were reduced to near 0%.

  • Improve Handling of Safety Critical Parts: A common aspect of working with aerospace and defense companies are “safety critical” parts, which require the utmost attention to handling and processing in order to ensure no nicks or dings occur on the part. Fixtures can contribute towards ensuring the safety of these parts by both eliminating the use of knives to cut out holes in tape, and by providing protective cases during part transport or processing.

  • Reduce Material Costs: While tape and razor blades may not cost much individually, over time the total price adds up quickly. Our fixtures are re-usable, meaning their net value returns only increase over time. The first customer we developed fixtures for, which were the two part threaded cases above, deployed the first lot in 2020; four years later, they are still using some of the original pieces with dozens of cycles per month.

Have an application which needs a solution?

Launch a discussion with one of our design engineers, who can walk you through design ideas and create a custom fixture for your application.