Vacuum Part Holding Jig

SQP Engineering, based in Western Australia, specializes in precision-machined products primarily for the mining, oil, and gas sectors. Established in 2006, SQP's 10-person team boasts an extensive client list, including Australian industry giants BHP and Woodside. They were the first in Western Australia to acquire an FX20 printer.

Producing thousands of different precision components on their CNC machines, SQP aims to minimize downtime to maintain high revenue levels.

“Additive manufacturing (AM) currently plays a key role in SQP’s productivity by printing components that facilitate the manufacturing process. These components were previously produced in the machine shop, taking up valuable production time,” explained David Miller, Managing Director of SQP Engineering.

SQP regularly produces large production runs of small Perspex screens that require CNC milling. Initially, the company machined aluminum jigs in-house, but found that aluminum often marred the soft Perspex, leading to unacceptable scrap rates.

Seeking a non-marring workholding solution, SQP turned to the FX20 and Onyx®. They first prototyped a small Onyx vacuum jig designed to hold four screens. After successful testing, they scaled up the jig to the size of the full print bed, increasing capacity from four to 50 screens.

“Vacuum jigs are integral to CNC methodology, but we’ve advanced this by producing printed jigs that can hold very intricate parts. This can be done quickly, accurately, and inexpensively using the printer,” said David.

“These jigs cost about a dollar each to print in terms of material. We can print them whenever one of our printers is not being used for production work – overnight, if necessary. In comparison, making them in aluminum, including materials, operator time, and lost machine time, would conservatively cost five times as much,” he added.

“To make them in aluminum, each jig would conservatively cost five times as much.”  
– David Miller, Managing Director, SQP Engineering

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Advantages

- **Increased Part Yield Rate:** Due to non-marring tools.
- **Enhanced Revenue Generation:** By eliminating time-consuming fixture manufacturing on their CNC machines.
- **Reduced Tooling Costs:** Significant savings in production costs.
- **Automated Fixturing:** Increased machining bandwidth and labor efficiency.