Capabilities

We engi­neer, design and man­u­fac­ture fix­tures that ensure parts are made to spec­i­fi­ca­tion. Our fix­tures are easy to use, built to last and give cus­tomers the con­fi­dence that they are only pass­ing good parts.

Production Fixtures

This com­pet­i­tive­ly priced and quick­ly pro­duced fix­ture is built in a durable and sta­ble com­pos­ite mate­r­i­al. This style is ide­al for ben­der buy-off and off the ben­der ver­i­fi­ca­tion. The open L” style pro­vides for greater vis­i­bil­i­ty, with met­al tabs to hold the part in place. The end-points can be ver­i­fied by sim­ple tol­er­ance zones or slid­ing com­po­nent check features.

This fix­ture illus­trates a pin/​bushing style cap­ture of the tube. This is a more open for­mat that allows for set­ting up ded­i­cat­ed ben­ders at nom­i­nal and then remov­ing the bush­ings for full tol­er­ance pro­duc­tion ver­i­fi­ca­tion. Also, like our oth­er options, can pro­vide for a sec­tion­al capa­bil­i­ty that allows for a fam­i­ly of parts that have some sim­i­lar­i­ties to be on one base. There is a large assort­ment of end-fea­tures for ver­i­fy­ing almost any end-detail and our poka yoke approach assures 100% qual­i­ty on the pro­duc­tion floor.

The full con­tour fix­ture was devel­oped orig­i­nal­ly by Clark Fix­tures. The con­cept behind it was to repli­cate the bound­aries called out on the print, so that the oper­a­tor can quick­ly deter­mine whether the part is good or bad. Var­i­ous end fea­tures are avail­able to check end details.

  • Final Audit Fixtures
  • In-process Fix­tures

These typ­i­cal­ly long fix­tures are pro­duced in a CAD/CAM envi­ron­ment and machined as a sin­gle piece with CNC equip­ment. They are avail­able in full-con­tour or pin style. They can accom­mo­date a fam­i­ly of parts on one base. Var­i­ous fea­tures can be added for check­ing brack­et loca­tions and the end details can be ver­i­fied with sim­ple tol­er­ance zones or slid­ing stain­less steel pins.

Large diam­e­ter com­pos­ite fix­tures are ide­al for pro­to­type and sub­assem­bly parts. Rather than man­u­fac­ture these fix­tures com­plete­ly out of tool steel we can uti­lize a durable com­pos­ite mate­r­i­al and place the hard­ened steel only at the con­tact points, there­by sav­ing on weight, man­u­fac­tur­ing time and cost.

Although we are known for our com­pos­ite fix­tures, we can also pro­vide a full assort­ment of met­al fix­tures for large tub­ing or weld­ing. Time and time again, our lead-times for met­al stan­chion fix­tures are much bet­ter than our com­peti­tors and all fix­tures are inspect­ed by our 17025 CMM lab. We offer the fol­low­ing fix­ture types:

  • Final Audit Fixtures
  • Re-strike Fix­tures
  • Weld Fix­tures

Check fix­tures for engi­neered ther­mal acousti­cal prod­ucts are designed in our CAD/CAM envi­ron­ment and CNC machined. Uti­liz­ing durable com­pos­ite mate­ri­als and only plac­ing hard­ened steel inserts at datum loca­tions or wear points, saves on weight, man­u­fac­ture time and cost. There is no need to sched­ule a fork lift to move this fix­ture to the active work cell.

A check fix­ture for auto­mo­tive spoil­er assem­bly con­struct­ed in a durable com­pos­ite mate­r­i­al can pro­vide an accu­rate and effi­cient way to ver­i­fy parts before adding addi­tion­al val­ue to them. Uti­liz­ing com­pos­ites vs alu­minum pro­vides for a fix­ture that is light weight, less expen­sive and much faster to pro­duce. Can incor­po­rate numer­ous fea­tures such as dig­i­tal indi­ca­tors for SPC col­lec­tion. These fix­tures can be ordered with or with­out carts and come ful­ly CMM inspect­ed from our ISO17025 lab.

Anoth­er exam­ple of a check fix­ture for an auto­mo­tive spoil­er assem­bly. Once again, uti­liz­ing com­pos­ites vs alu­minum pro­vides for a fix­ture that is light weight, less expen­sive and much faster to pro­duce. Can incor­po­rate an alu­minum hon­ey­comb base to reduce weight even fur­ther, or placed on a ground alu­minum plate. The fix­ture can incor­po­rate numer­ous fea­tures such as dig­i­tal indi­ca­tors for SPC col­lec­tion. These fix­tures can be ordered with or with­out carts and come ful­ly CMM inspect­ed from our ISO17025 lab.


Our cus­tom designed orbital weld fix­tures allow an oper­a­tor to scribe the end of tube loca­tions, assem­ble the indi­vid­ual tubes togeth­er with­in the fix­ture and then orbital­ly weld the assem­bly and end fea­tures togeth­er in an effi­cient and accu­rate man­ner. These fix­tures have proven to be extreme­ly suc­cess­ful for com­pa­nies mov­ing from R&D to a pro­duc­tion mode, where rate and repeata­bil­i­ty are essential.

Fixture Materials

Diagram layered1

Overview

Our technology goes beyond fixtures and extends to all the materials that we use.

  • Fixture with customer part loaded
Diagram layered2

The Base

The Clark Fixture base consists of an aluminum honeycomb core sandwiched between two sheets of aluminum and an extruded aluminum frame, which provides for stability and stiffness and reduces the weight. However, our metal stanchion fixtures are always placed on ground and polished aluminum tooling plate.

Diagram layered3

The Fixture

Clark Fixtures has built many of our fixtures in various foamed urethane boards. This material is durable and extremely stable. It helps reduce cost, weight, and lead-time. It also allows us to add in metal inserts where needed.

  • All metal fixtures are available.
Diagram layered4

The Fixture

This picture represents one of the composites we use where extra durability is needed. Primarily for larger diameter tubing or rougher environments.

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The Components

With over 40 years of experince in numerous industries, we have developed a large catalog of features that can be added to our fixtures as needed. All of these features are designed using materials to ensure precision, durability and corrosion resistance.

  • End-pins
  • bracket locators
  • Scribe pins
  • Flange clocking pins

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CMM Inspection Services

Our CMM lab has ISO-IEC17025:2017 Accreditation.

  • 2D and 3D Fixture Inspection Services
  • Reverse Engineering with Documentation
  • ISO 9001-2015 Certified and ISO 17025-2017 Accredited
  • Calibrated by Hexagon Metrology technicians & NIST Traceable
  • Brown & Sharpe Global Performance (DCC Controlled) with 1200mm X 3000mm X 1000mm Envelope
  • Brown & Sharpe Stiefelmayer Horizontal Arm (DCC Controlled) with 4000mm X 1200mm X 2000mm Envelope
CMM Inspection Technician looking at a measuring device
“The most recent exam­ple is F/A‑18‑E/F fuel line prob­lem your team helped us resolve. We need­ed a repeat­able fix­ture to assem­ble and check these com­pli­cat­ed assem­blies to. Your design team devel­oped a sys­tem that does every­thing we need and more. Since imple­ment­ing this fix­ture in our pro­duc­tion process­es we have not expe­ri­enced a sin­gle prob­lem relat­ed to assem­bly. With­out your assis­tance we would like­ly be strug­gling with this prob­lem still. Thank you again for the great job. We look for­ward to doing busi­ness with Clark Fix­ture Tech­nolo­gies in the future.”
Andy Dale, Eaton Aerospace

Our Approach to Verification

Solving the difficult problem of how to quickly, easily and confidently ensure the accuracy of a part. Thereby empowering the operator on the floor to make the correct determinations.

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