Application
3D-printed jigs & fixtures, custom, light, ready in days.
Drill jigs, assembly fixtures, inspection gauges and robot grippers designed and printed around your parts — typically 60-80% lighter and 3-10x cheaper than machined metal equivalents, ready in 3-5 business days.
Typical lead time
- 1Send part CAD or scan the part
- 2Fixture design + quote
- 3Print in PA12 / PA12-CF / MJF
- 4Insert bushings, QC + ship
Quick answer
To get a 3D-printed jig or fixture for your company, send us the CAD of the part it has to hold (or ship us the part for scanning). We design the fixture around the geometry — including steel drill bushings, locators or vacuum ports where needed — print it in MJF PA12 or PA12-CF, and ship in 3-5 business days. Typical cost is 3-10x lower than a machined aluminium jig, with 60-80% weight reduction.
What we make
Jigs and fixtures we ship every week
Concrete tooling B2B customers use on the shop floor — assembly, inspection, welding, machining and robotic cells.
- Drill jigs with pressed-in hardened steel bushings for hole-pattern accuracy on sheet metal, castings and weldments
- Assembly fixtures that locate a part in one repeatable orientation for cycle-time reduction
- Go / no-go inspection gauges printed from the nominal CAD for fast QC at the line
- Weld tacking jigs in PA12-CF or PPA for holding parts before final welding (kept clear of arc)
- Robot end-of-arm tools (EOAT) and vacuum grippers for pick-and-place cells
- Bonding and clamping fixtures with cured-in silicone seals
- Paint masks, marking templates and etching stencils
- Ergonomic hand tools and torque-reaction fixtures for assembly operators
- Lightweight metrology fixtures for CMM and optical inspection
How it works
From part to jig in four steps
Send part + intent
Ship us the part or send its CAD. Tell us what the jig has to do: drill, locate, inspect, weld-hold, grip.
Design + quote
Our engineers design the fixture around the part geometry, add bushings/inserts/vacuum ports, and quote design + print together.
Produce
Print in MJF PA12, PA12-CF or PPA. Press in steel bushings and inserts. Verify with a first-article check against the part.
Deliver
Ship the jig with a first-article report and the STEP files, so you can order duplicates or revisions later without re-engineering.
Materials & processes
What we would suggest for jigs & fixtures
Process choice depends on daily cycle count, load, heat exposure and whether the jig sees abrasive surfaces.
- General-purpose assembly and inspection jigs: MJF PA12 — isotropic, tough, dimensionally stable — /technologies/mjf
- Jigs that clamp or take load: PA12-CF (carbon-filled) or PA12-GF (glass-filled) for 2-3x stiffness
- High-cycle line fixtures with wear points: MJF PA12 body + pressed steel bushings and locators
- Weld tacking jigs (kept off the arc): PA12-CF or PPA for higher heat deflection
- Direct-heat exposure: PEEK (industrial FDM) for continuous 250°C — /technologies/fdm
- Complex EOAT with cavities and internal channels: SLS PA12 — /technologies/sls
- Vacuum grippers with sealed cavities and integrated ports: MJF PA12 with a coating
- Large jigs > 400 mm: industrial FDM in ABS or ASA for lowest cost per litre — /technologies/fdm
- Hybrid jigs (printed body + machined steel face): common for injection-mould take-out and weld fixtures
Typical case
Automotive drill jig, MJF PA12 + steel bushings, €320, 4 days
A tier-2 automotive supplier needed a drill jig to place 6 x M8 holes into a stamped bracket. Line rate: 240 parts per shift. The existing machined aluminium jig had failed and quoted at €1,850 with a 12-day lead time from the local machine shop.
We designed the replacement in a day: MJF PA12 body, 6 pressed-in hardened steel drill bushings, an ergonomic handle and rubber grip. Printed and shipped in 4 business days at €320. Weight dropped from 2.1 kg to 620 g — the line operator no longer needed a two-hand grip. After 6 months and ~40k cycles the bushings were still within spec; the polymer body showed cosmetic wear only.
Vs alternative approaches
When 3D printing beats machined jigs or off-the-shelf tooling
vs machined steel / aluminium jigs
Machined jigs win only when the jig is small, geometrically simple, takes very high load or sees direct heat/arc. For anything with conformal geometry, ergonomic handles or complex clamping, printed PA12 lands at 3-10x lower cost, 60-80% less weight and in 3-5 days instead of 10-15. Steel inserts cover the wear points.
vs off-the-shelf modular fixturing
Modular systems (BoxJoint, Bluco, Halder) are excellent when the part shape is regular. On organic or irregular parts, you spend hours setting up locators that will never truly conform. A custom-printed nest that mirrors the part surface locates in seconds and cuts operator time on every cycle.
vs welded steel weldments
Welded steel is cheap in labour cost but slow to design, hard to revise and heavy. A printed jig with the same accuracy is a fraction of the weight, revised in an afternoon in CAD and reprinted the next day. Reserve welded steel for the parts of the jig that see real heat or heavy static load.
vs no jig at all
The most common alternative is "the operator eyeballs it". A €300 printed jig regularly cuts a 45-second manual location step to 5 seconds, eliminates a class of misalignment defects and pays back on the first shift. Simple ROI: jig cost / minutes saved per shift / shift rate — most jigs pay back in 1-3 weeks.
FAQ
What manufacturing engineers and industrial buyers ask us
3D printing is a strong fit for: - Drill and hole-location jigs (with steel drill bushings pressed into the print). - Assembly fixtures that hold a part in a repeatable orientation. - Inspection and go/no-go gauges. - Weld positioning jigs (for tacking; not for direct arc exposure). - Robotic end-of-arm tooling (EOAT) and vacuum grippers. - Marking and paint masks. It is a worse fit for jigs that see continuous high heat, direct arc/spatter, or heavy static loads (> 500 kg on a single feature). Those still go to machined steel or aluminium.
Design a custom jig around your part — printed and shipped in days.
Send us the CAD or the part. We design the fixture, quote design + production together, and ship a first-article-verified jig in 3-5 business days.