Sharp Tooling Solutions  

Learn about our aerospace capabilities.

Part Fabrication Tooling

We are experienced in designing and manufacturing any tool needed to produce your parts to a higher standard. Our expansive portfolio includes layup molds, trim fixtures, stretch forms, and more, which can all have the required specialty items added to ensure your product quality. We have experience working with all the major material types including INVAR, steel, aluminum, composite and many composite foams.

Coordinated Tooling

When producing complex assemblies that include parts with tight tolerance, Sharp is sought after to design, manufacture, and maintain coordinated tooling solutions. From producing the needed master tooling and all the associated tooling manufactured from that master, Sharp has the internal know-how to produce the tool string required to ensure your product’s quality.

Detail Tooling

From your initial build to a new variant requiring field service, Sharp produces the necessary detail tooling to make your program a success. Our track record of producing these specialized tools and associated components, combined with our expertise in kitting, can support your fleet with the right tools anywhere on the globe.

Assembly Tooling

Producing your subassemblies and assemblies within tolerance is critical to every program’s success. Sharp’s expertise in assembly tooling, including assembly, mate, holding and alignment fixtures, ensures our product quality can be found throughout the aerospace industry from commercial aviation to missile systems.

Facility Equipment

To ensure your product and personnel are safe throughout the entire manufacturing process, Sharp produces a variety of facility equipment.  From transport solutions that safely move your product from station to station, or between sites on opposite sides of the globe, to work platforms that provide your personnel a safe and ergonomic work environment, Sharp can develop solutions that meet your needs.

PATCO® 

When speed to market, product accuracy, and ease of use are critical to your product launch, PATCO® tooling solution is the perfect fit. From its reputation as a cost-effective and accurate solution, to its customizability and ease-of-use, PATCO® helps us help you. PATCO® stands for prototype assembly tooling coordinates and is ​​a modular tooling system based on a 50mm grid system and 16mm shoulder bolt. It can hold positional tolerance of +/- 0.002 and true position tolerances of +/- 0.005.

• Prototype & Pre-Production Tooling: PATCO® has been an industry leading solution supporting prototype and pre-production manufacturing activities for the Big Three for decades. Based on its reliability and versatility, PATCO® has continued its success with the expanding mobility industry aiding companies like Tesla, Lucid, Rivian, Canoo, and Zoox in their product development and initial vehicle launches.

• Weld Fixtures: Positional accuracy is the main function of a welding fixture. Accurate positioning is critical to the success of the weld and the quality of the final position of each part. In the days when welding was still a traditional craft, the welder’s most well-kept secret was his jigs. These were usually custom-made and then either welded to the worktable or attached using various welding fixtures, including regular clamps and vices of various types. But technology has taken over, and today’s welder has the advantage of being able to use the most sophisticated fixturing available, PATCO®. PATCO® welding fixtures and accessories enable welders to accommodate workpieces of different shapes and sizes. Being modular, they can be used to create unique solutions for all their welding needs. Additionally, they help welders to easily increase speed with dependable accuracy.

• Holding Fixtures: PATCO® offers a range of modular fixturing for use with Co-ordinate Measuring Machines (CMMs), and vision systems. Our modular PATCO®fixturing can improve the throughput, reproducibility, and accuracy of your inspection process with quick and repeatable fixturing set-ups. Whether you are inspecting parts for aerospace, automotive, or industrial applications, PATCO®fixtures can provide a complete solution to your fixturing requirements.

• The PATCO® Solution: The most powerful advantage of PATCO® is discovered when customers have multiple product development activities in play. The reusability and speed of changeover of a PATCO® solution allows for program costs and schedules to be greatly reduced compared to a traditional method.

CHXflex

CHXflex creates a metrology inspection environment for fixturing. Sharp innovated a three-step process that includes positioning, locating, and securing a workpiece within a measuring volume for inspection. Whether this inspection involves a coordinate measuring machine (CMM), measuring arm, laser tracker, or vision system, the goal of the fixture is to hold the part securely and repeatedly. Users of this multi-use fixture can save time while increasing accuracy.

As a Sharp Tooling Solutions product, CHXflex fulfills our core company standards: ease-of-use combined with cost-saving technology.

Learn about our automotive capabilities.

Fit & Finish Tooling

Well-established OEMs and new startups continuously choose Sharp to provide high-quality solutions to prove out their vehicle’s fit and finishes. Whether you require an exterior, interior, or a combination fixture, allow our team to implement their vast experience to engineer and manufacture a solution that ensures both your individual parts and complete assembly meet your engineering requirements.

Check & CMM Tooling

Ensuring product throughout your manufacturing process is key to every program’s success. From single part attribute fixtures to complete bodysides, Sharp has the experience to analyze your GD&T and SPC requirements to engineer and assemble solutions that ensure a robust manufacturing process.

Assembly Tooling

Whether you need a traditional fixture or a combination with our PATCO® modular tooling, Sharp’s engineered solutions deliver value to our customers by ensuring first-time quality in producing their assemblies.  From instrument panels, to closures, to a full body-in-white, our team has experience in providing solutions that produce your assemblies within the engineered specifications.

Facility Equipment

Sharp has produced a vast amount of facility equipment to aid in the safety of your personnel and product throughout the manufacturing of your vehicles.  From ensuring your personnel have the correct ergonomic access to lifting an entire body structure safely, Sharp had the expertise to produce the right solution for your plant.