Soft Jaws: Precision Workholding for CNC Machining
Soft jaws are custom‑fit, compliant workholders that allow you to secure irregular or delicate parts that flat vise jaws cannot accommodate. Traditionally they are milled from aluminum or steel, but modern additive manufacturing enables them to be fabricated from high‑strength, continuous‑fiber reinforced polymers. Creating soft jaws by machining is a labor‑intensive cycle: engineers design the geometry in CAD, generate a CAM program, and run the CNC to mill the part. Each iteration may require tweaking the tool path or the design itself, consuming valuable production time and skilled labor that could be better spent on revenue‑generating operations. In contrast, a 3D‑printed soft jaw is produced with minimal human intervention. Once the file is uploaded, the printer builds the part layer by layer while the rest of your workshop continues running. This hands‑off approach frees machinists to focus on more complex tasks and keeps CNC machines available for other jobs. With a skilled workforce increasingly scarce, 3D printing lets manufacturers maximize the utility of their existing talent and equipment. Want to see the process in action? Watch our video below. Try a free sample from Markforged and experience the exceptional strength of our fiber‑reinforced materials.What are soft jaws?
Why 3D print soft jaws?
3D printing
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