Who Orders Fixtures
Fixtures for Automation Integrators and Machine Builders
A cell is a few hundred machined details on a deadline. They are quoted from your prints, as one order, by a person.
An automation cell is built from machined details that exist only for that cell: nests, pallet tooling, end-of-arm plates, sensor and guarding brackets, transfer and escapement parts. They arrive as a package of prints with one runoff date behind them. All of it is quoted build to print as one order with one contact, no minimum, a person replying in 24-48 hours, standard lead time 4-6 weeks.
Updated September 2026
Start Here
Get a Quote in 24-48 Hours
Send us your files and we’ll quote it, usually within 24-48 hours.
Need an NDA before you send files? Ask for one and it’s sent the same day.
Commercial work only. We don’t quote firearms, DoD, ITAR, or EAR-controlled parts.
The shape of the order: many prints, one date
Integrator and machine-builder work does not look like a parts order. It looks like a folder: thirty or eighty prints, most of them one-off, in half a dozen materials, with quantities of one and two and a runoff date that was fixed before the design was finished. The hard part is rarely any single part. It is getting the whole package quoted quickly, made to the same conventions and delivered together.
That is how it is quoted here: the package as one order with one contact, priced from the prints you send, with anything that cannot be made or inspected as drawn named in the quote instead of substituted. A person reads the files and replies in 24-48 hours. There is no minimum, so the quantity-of-one details that platforms price badly are quoted the same way as the rest.
What a cell actually needs machined
The recurring list is short and familiar: part nests and pallet tooling that present a part in one orientation, end-of-arm tooling plates that adapt a robot wrist to grippers and cups, gripper jaws and fingers cut to the part shape, sensor and camera mounting brackets, escapement and transfer details, guarding and panel brackets, sub-plates and risers that tie the tooling to the frame, plus the catalog hardware they carry, such as toggle clamps and fixture pins (mcmaster.com/products/fixture-pins/), called out by part number.
Each of those has its own page where the detail matters: assembly fixtures and nests for the nests and pallet tooling, end-of-arm tooling plates for the robot side, and fixture plates and workholding for grid and sub-plates. Robotics and automation parts covers the wider range an integrator orders.
Dowel everything: the rule that decides whether a cell is maintainable
A cell gets taken apart. Something crashes, a gripper wears, a part number changes, a technician removes a nest to clear a jam at 2 AM. What decides whether it goes back together and runs the old program is whether the tooling was dowelled. Two dowels with a stated fit class per located detail means it returns to the same coordinates; bolt clearance alone means teaching it again.
So the fit class belongs on the print, not the word "dowel". So does flatness and parallelism on any mounting face that carries a datum, because a plate that twists when it is bolted down loses the position it was made to. These are cheap callouts at print time and expensive discoveries at runoff. Where flatness is doing real work, cast tooling plate is what keeps it: the MIC-6 brochure (howardprecision.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Mic-6-brochure-1-1.pdf) gives a maximum deviation from flat of 0.005 in on plate 3/4 in and thicker.
Spares, duplicates and the second cell
Two orders are worth placing with the first one. A spare of anything that crashes, typically the gripper jaws, the nest and the EOAT plate, turns a wreck into an hour of downtime instead of a rebuild and a lead time. And where a customer has already said a second cell is coming, say so: duplicates for a second cell are quoted with the first.
Both are normal orders here and neither carries a minimum. If the second cell is a maybe rather than a plan, say so and the quote can price the set both ways so the decision is a number rather than a guess. Reorders at the same revision: send the last quote or PO number and it’s requoted.
What the quote covers, and what it will not claim
The quote covers machined details to the tolerances on your prints, the hardware the prints list, assembly where a print shows an assembly, and finishing specified on the print, which is quoted with the part and comes back finished and inspected. Ground details bring precision grinding onto the same order; plate work, pockets, dowel holes and tapped holes are CNC milling.
Parts are made to the prints you send, and where something is missing the quote says what it is rather than filling it in. No drawing yet? Fixture design is quoted as its own line. Send the part, the features to locate and check, and how it’s loaded. Integrators generally have the design covered anyway; what they are short of is a supplier who will take a folder of one-off prints, quote it fast and stand behind it.
Speed, and the parts of it you control
Quotes come back in 24-48 hours. Rush 1-2 weeks applies to machined parts with no secondary operations. Heat treat, grinding, EDM and finishing add time, and the quote gives the real date. Standard lead time is 4-6 weeks, and extended is 6-8 weeks when timing is flexible. Lead time starts at order approval. Put your need date in the part description and the quote answers it. The things that move a package toward the fast end are on your side of the line: complete prints with materials and tolerances stated, hardware called out by part number, and a clear split between what is released and what is still moving.
Sending a package with three prints marked "not final" is fine and is better than waiting for all of them, because the released parts can start. Say which is which. Vendor setup takes a day: W-9, NDA, net terms available, which matters when a purchase order has to clear before anything is cut.
Questions
Before you send a job.
01 Can you quote a whole cell package at once?
Yes, and that is the usual way it arrives: a folder of one-off prints in several materials against one runoff date, quoted as one order with one contact. A person reads the files and replies in 24-48 hours, and anything that cannot be made or inspected as drawn is named rather than substituted.
02 Is a quantity of one a problem?
No, and there is no minimum. Most cell tooling is quantity one or two by nature, and it is quoted the same way as a larger run. If a second cell is likely, say so. Duplicates for a second cell are quoted with the first.
03 Do you design the tooling?
When you need it, fixture design is quoted as its own line, from the part, the features to locate and check, and how it is loaded. Most integrator packages arrive as finished prints, and parts are made to them; where something is missing, the quote says what it is rather than filling it in.
04 What should the prints carry that often gets left off?
Dowel hole fit classes rather than just the word dowel, flatness and parallelism on any mounting face that carries a datum, hardware called out by part number, material and temper on every detail, and which prints are released versus still moving. Those are cheap at print time and expensive at runoff.
05 Should we order spares with the build?
For anything that crashes, yes: gripper jaws, nests and EOAT plates are the usual three. A spare ordered with the build turns a wreck into an hour of downtime rather than a rebuild plus a lead time, and it is quoted alongside the original rather than as a new job later.
06 How fast can parts arrive if the runoff date is tight?
Rush is 1-2 weeks, standard 4-6 and extended 6-8 when timing is flexible, and the quote gives the real date for the package. Complete prints, hardware called out by part number and a clear released-versus-moving split are what move a package toward the fast end. Vendor setup takes a day: W-9, NDA, net terms available.
Related
Where to go next.
Custom machined fixtures
The hub: every fixture family, quoted from your print.
View →End-of-arm tooling plates
Wrist adapters, gripper and vacuum plates, dowelled.
View →Robotics and automation parts
The wider range an integrator orders.
View →Get a quote
Any file type; STEP + PDF ideal. A person replies in 24-48 hours.
View →Get Started
Send us your files.
We’ll take it from there.
A quote in 24-48 hours, no minimums. Like the quote, and we’ll make your parts and ship them to you.
Get a Quote