What are jigs and fixtures?
Manufacturing aids are an important part of any manufacturing industry. They ease the entire manufacturing process from start to end be it manually operated or fully automatic. Jigs help holds the position or guide the tool in a specific orientation to execute the manufacturing operation. It is a part specifically made to ensure repeated operations with high accuracy. For example, drill bushings are used to guide the drill tool for drilling, boring, tapping operations etc to ensure precise positioning and drill angle resulting in higher work quality and increased production output.
On the other hand, fixtures are used to firmly hold the part in a specific orientation and location so that manufacturing operations can be performed on the part. Vice used to hold the part for CNC machining is the simplest example of the fixture. Fixtures are important to enable automation and a high rate of production. There’s hardly any manufacturing industry where fixtures are not used. In a mass production set-up like automobile manufacturing, various types of fixtures are used such as manufacturing fixtures, assembly fixtures, paint fixtures, inspection fixtures, transportation fixtures etc. Applying Jigs and fixtures jointly will ensure desired dimensional accuracy and quality of the part to meet the functional requirements.
How are jigs and fixtures made?
Conventionally, Jigs and fixtures are first designed digitally using CAD software according to the part geometry and manufacturing process and then made by CNC or manual process depending according to the level of precision needed. Jigs and fixtures are either single parts or assemblies of multiple components. Choice of material again depends upon the type of manufacturing set up, and precision needed and can be made in metal as well as plastics. Plastics are cheaper and meet most of the performance requirements.
3D printed jigs and fixtures
Jigs and fixtures are designed conventionally but are made by additive manufacturing/3D printing process. 3D printed jigs and fixtures not only saves the manufacturing lead time but can be made at the fraction of the cost of conventional manufacturing. Complex shapes can be made which is not possible by conventional manufacturing setups. Fixtures manufacturing is usually outsourced but in the case of AM, the parts can be received very quickly from a
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