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Jigs and fixtures that hold a panel where it needs to be, ducting nobody makes any more, brackets in a fortnight rather than a quarter — and trim in numbers too small for a tool.
Where it earns its keep
Inspection jigs, checking fixtures and assembly aids, printed in PA12 nylon and stiff enough to work with
Air and fluid ducting, printed hollow with no tooling and no minimum order
Obsolete and one-off parts, scanned from the original and printed back — see printed vehicle parts
Low-volume trim and interior pieces where an injection tool would never pay for itself
How it gets printed
Most of this work goes on HP Multi Jet Fusion, because the parts come out equally strong in every direction and need no supports, so a bracket does not have a weak axis you have to design around. Where the surface matters more than the strength — a styling model, a clear duct to watch flow through — it goes on SLA instead.
Doing it yourself
Teams printing week in and week out usually stop sending work out and buy a machine. For resin that is the HeyGears Reflex range; for larger parts, Uniontech SLA.
Talk to an engineer, not a form
Describe the part and someone who prints these every week will tell you whether printing is the right answer — including when it is not. Send us the file, or call 0330 229 0175.
