Fixture Plates, Tooling Plates, And Modular Fixtures

DALIAN, China - July 6, 2025 - PRLog -- These tooling components form the foundation of secure and repeatable setups, allowing parts to be accurately located and efficiently machined. Whether you're producing one-off prototypes or high-volume production runs, the right workholding system can reduce setup times, improve consistency, and maximize productivity.

What Is a Fixture Plate?

A fixture plate, sometimes called a tooling plate, is a flat, precision-machined base plate mounted to the CNC machine's table. It contains a grid of accurately spaced holes or slots, which serve as a reference system for mounting parts, vises, clamps, or custom fixtures.

Fixture plates are made from stable materials like hardened steel or aluminum and are ground flat to tight tolerances. Their purpose is to provide a repeatable locating surface that ensures consistent positioning of workpieces or workholding devices.

Tooling Plates: A Subset With Specific Use

Tooling plates are often used interchangeably with fixture plates, but in some contexts, they refer to plates that are dedicated to a particular job or part family. While fixture plates are generic and reusable, tooling plates may be custom-drilled or machined to hold specific parts using dedicated features like locating pins, pockets, or tapped holes.

Modular Fixtures: Flexibility and Scalability

Modular fixtures consist of interchangeable components that can be assembled in different configurations to accommodate a wide variety of parts. They are particularly valuable in low- to mid-volume production, prototyping, and R&D settings where workpiece variety is high.

Comparing Their Roles

While fixture plates, tooling plates, and modular fixtures are often used together, they serve distinct purposes:

Fixture Plates: Provide the master locating surface for the machine; built for precision and repeatability across multiple jobs.

Tooling Plates: Job-specific or intermediate plates that simplify the mounting of complex or irregular parts.

Modular Fixtures: Highly adaptable systems used for flexible fixturing; ideal for prototyping or varying part geometries.

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