SQP Engineering is a Western Australian supplier of precision-machined products, primarily for the mining, oil and gas sectors. Established in 2006, SQP’s 10-person team’s extensive client list includes Australian industry giants BHP and Woodside. The company is proud to have been the first in Western Australia to purchase an FX20 printer.
In addition to 3D printing, SQP produces thousands of different precision components using their suite of automated CNC machines. This business, while lucrative, presents two quality control requirements: part checks for manufacturing anomalies at regular intervals during a production run and random checks at the end of a run to verify production quality.
SQP invested in a state-of-the-art Micro Vu CMM system to carry out inspections, but needed to find a cost effective way to secure parts during inspection. They considered CNC machining their tools, but quickly realized that machining time required to make the fixtures would substantially affect their bottom line.
Conformal 3D printed Onyx® fixtures, designed simply in CAD by producing the reverse image of the part, can securely and precisely hold parts during inspection. The speed and size of FX20 were huge difference makers – enabling them to produce large fixtures rapidly without any skilled machining labor.
“Making the jigs in Onyx® on our FX20 frees up hours of valuable CNC time. We can even set up the printer to produce jigs overnight, which is a big bonus when we are facing tight deadlines,” he said.
Printing jigs on the FX20 significantly impacted their bottom line. “Because we make thousands of different items, each of which would need a jig, it would have taken up substantial amounts of machine time, which is where our main cash flow is generated,” said David. Now, they maximize production of revenue generating parts on their CNC machines.
Making the jigs in Onyx® on our FX20 frees up hours of valuable CNC time.”
– David Miller, Managing Director, SQP Engineering
Advantages
Article from: https://markforged.com/resources/application-spotlights/large-cmm-fixture
