Custom Components for Production: Grippers, Plates, and Specialized Tooling

In many manufacturing environments, components such as robotic grippers, custom plates and specialized tools are not mere accessories: they are essential to ensuring continuous line operation.

Custom-designed, often unique, these parts are engineered to meet specific process requirements, cycle times and material constraints.

When one of these parts breaks, becomes obsolete or needs urgent replacement, the risk of downtime is real. Moreover, sourcing spares from third parties is often challenging, especially when parts are not standardized or are out of production.

Today, industrial additive manufacturing and high-performance materials enable fast reproduction and optimization of these components, overcoming the limits of traditional production.

The limits of standard components

In automated lines, many functional parts are not available off the shelf. They are custom-built for specific needs, adapted over time or made to meet operational constraints. While this high degree of customization allows better process control, it also introduces several challenges:

Difficult to source, especially without codes or active suppliers

Small batches or one-offs are costly and unscalable using traditional methods

Physical inventory must be maintained, increasing storage costs and obsolescence risk

Long lead times and expensive setups for mold making or CNC machining

Materials not always suitable for harsh environments, sterilization or accelerated wear

These issues are common in sectors such as pharma, packaging and industrial automation, where customization is a structural necessity.

In this context, transitioning to a digital warehouse and on-demand production model offers a concrete solution: eliminate physical stock and produce only when needed, with components that are always up-to-date, validated and available.

Applications of Additive Manufacturing for Flexible Production

Additive manufacturing enables rapid response to evolving production needs: from one order to the next. This is especially useful for companies dealing with variable formats, reconfigurable lines or high product turnover.

Here are some practical examples:

Interchangeable grippers for pick & place robots, tailored to the shape and weight of new food or medical products

Custom plates for conveyor belt systems, adapted to new packaging formats without modifying the machine

Auxiliary tools for quality control tasks, produced in limited quantities but crucial for automating manual operations

Positioning jigs and fixtures, customized for each batch or complex geometries during assembly

All these components can be designed, optimized and produced within a few days, eliminating setup bottlenecks.

Why it pays off: advantages beyond the part itself

Adopting additive manufacturing for custom components is more than just producing different parts. It’s about rethinking the entire approach to tooling and support equipment:

Aspect	Concrete Advantage
Reduced time-to-line	Parts ready in days, not weeks; faster from design to operation
Just-in-time production	No physical inventory; produce only when needed
Updateable design	Quick changes via scan-to-part or reverse engineering
Zero tooling	No molds, no upfront setup costs
Production versatility	Easily adapts to format changes, custom batches, or new geometries

In today’s industrial landscape, where agility is increasingly strategic, leveraging a technology that combines customization, speed, and quality offers a real competitive edge.

Grippers, plates and tooling made with additive manufacturing are not just substitutes for the original parts: they are advanced tools that help adapt lines faster, reduce setup times and efficiently respond to new product configurations.