The Shop
A precision machining shop on the west coast of Norway, serving the maritime and offshore oil & gas industries. Their customers include major suppliers to Kongsberg Maritime, Jets Vacuum, and Sperre Air Power.
The shop runs a mix of CNC mills and lathes, machining demanding materials: 316L stainless steel, duplex, super duplex, and titanium. Tolerances are tight. Quality requirements are non-negotiable. When you are making parts that go inside ships and offshore platforms, there is no room for "close enough."
The Problem
The shop was running a standard Kurt vise on their Haas VMC. For every new production run:
- —A machinist would bolt the vise to the table, indicate it in, and zero the fixture. That took 12 to 15 minutes.
- —Each cycle held one part. To run 20 parts, the machine door opened and closed 20 times for loading and unloading.
- —Manual clamping meant every part was held with slightly different force, creating subtle variation in part deflection and tolerance.
- —Every changeover required re-indicating the vise from scratch.
At 8 changeovers per month, the shop was losing 15+ hours of spindle time to setup and load/unload operations. On materials like super duplex, where machine time is expensive and demand is high, those lost hours meant delayed deliveries and overtime costs.
The machinist on this project (who later founded FixtureFlex 3D) saw the waste and decided to do something about it.
The Solution
Instead of buying an off-the-shelf workholding system for $2,000 to $5,000 plus shipping, the machinist designed a custom quick-change pallet system from scratch using Autodesk Fusion.
The system had two parts:
- 1A pallet base, permanently mounted to the machine table, with a zero-point clamping receiver. Indicated once. Never removed.
- 2A custom fixture pallet, designed specifically for the shop's maritime part geometry, using Mitee-Bite edge clamps for secure, repeatable holding. The pallet held 3 parts per cycle instead of 1.
The pallet drops into the base, clamps in seconds, and requires zero indicating. Swap from one job to the next in under 3 minutes.
The Implementation
The machinist designed the pallet system in Autodesk Fusion over the course of 2 days. The complete design package included:
- —Full .step files for the pallet base and fixture
- —2D manufacturing drawings with GD&T callouts
- —Bill of Materials with exact Mitee-Bite part numbers
- —Assembly instructions
- —Toolpath strategy recommendations for the specific tool list
The shop's own machinists manufactured the pallet from the CAD files in aluminum stock. Total material cost: approximately $350 in aluminum plus $250 in Mitee-Bite components. No shipping. No waiting. No markup.
From design to first part on the machine: 5 days.
The Results
The transformation was immediate and measurable:
| Metric | Before (Vise) | After (Pallet System) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parts per cycle | 1 | 3 | +200% |
| Setup time per changeover | 45 minutes | 3 minutes | -93% |
| Load/unload per part | 3.5 minutes | 1.2 minutes | -66% |
| Door opens per cycle | 4 | 1 | -75% |
| Monthly downtime from fixturing | 15.3 hours | 3.6 hours | -11.7 hours |
| Monthly cost at $75/hr | $1,147 | $270 | -$877 |
| Clamping force consistency | Variable (manual) | Repeatable (pneumatic) | Quality improvement |
The 93% setup time reduction translated directly to more spindle time. More spindle time meant more parts per shift. More parts per shift meant faster deliveries to maritime customers without overtime.
The system is still in production today, running the same parts on the same machine.
What Was Delivered
The complete design package for this project included:
- —Custom pallet base design (.step file) with zero-point clamping receiver
- —Custom fixture pallet design (.step file) for 3 parts per cycle
- —2D manufacturing drawings (PDF) with full GD&T
- —Bill of Materials with exact Mitee-Bite part numbers (click-to-order)
- —Assembly instructions with step-by-step photos
- —Toolpath strategy document for the specific tool list
- —Setup time comparison report (before vs after)
Total design time: 2 days. Total manufacturing time at the shop: 3 days. From problem to solution: 5 days.
This is exactly what FixtureFlex 3D delivers to every customer. The same process, the same deliverables, the same results, custom-designed for your parts, your machines, and your materials.
The Day-One Fit Guarantee
Every FixtureFlex 3D design comes with our Day-One Fit Guarantee: if the fixture requires any modifications when it hits your machine bed, we redesign it within 12 hours at no cost, and credit up to $500 toward shop downtime.
This case study is real. The numbers are real. The guarantee is real.
FixtureFlex 3D delivers custom CNC fixture and pallet designs as downloadable CAD files. We don't sell files. We sell hours back to your shop.