Case Study
Christopher Tool
Custom Laser-Making Fixtures

Use Case – Custom Laser-Making Fixtures

Customer Profile
A family-owned business since 1951, Christopher Tool and Mfg. Co. provides quality machined parts on time with zero defects. Areas of concentration include aerospace, oil and gas, robotics, fluid power, and diesel engine components, with job sizes ranging from prototypes to medium-range production runs. A core goal of the company is continually improving its manufacturing expertise to support customer needs.

Challenge
Christopher Tool uses a laser process to mark the parts it manufactures. Although the procedure takes only seconds, each piece must be fixtured so it is immovable while it’s marked. However, the wide variety of parts the company makes calls for different setups to accommodate different shapes. Setup is usually achieved using vices, blocks, or magnets, which consumes a lot of time, and similar parts must be marked in the same location. Without a repeatable process, marks can be mislocated, distorted, or missing altogether, negatively impacting part quality.

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