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ENGINEERED AROUND YOUR PROCESS

Machine Design & Tooling

Turning a production requirement into a machine that can actually be built, maintained, and changed later. Layouts, fixtures, and end-of-arm tooling designed by people who have commissioned what they drew.

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Ethos engineering and shop-floor work supporting machine design & tooling
ENGINEERING IN PRACTICE / INSIDE ETHOS

The problem this solves

Most automation that disappoints was not badly built. It was badly designed, and the build was faithful to the drawing.

The failures look the same every time. Tooling that works on a nominal part and jams on a real one. A fixture that cannot be reached for maintenance without pulling the guarding. A layout that hits its rate on paper and loses it to a transfer nobody modelled. A machine that runs the current part perfectly and cannot be adapted when the part changes.

Design is where those outcomes get decided, and it is the cheapest place to fix them. A change on a layout costs an afternoon. The same change after fabrication costs weeks.

We came out of Tier 1 automotive, which means we have been on the receiving end of equipment designed by people who never had to run it. That shaped how we design: for the plant that owns the machine for the next ten years, not for the sign-off meeting.

What we actually do

Concept and layout.
Cell arrangement, part flow, operator and maintenance access, guarding and safety zones. Reach studies before anything is committed, not after.
Simulation before steel.
We model reach, cycle, and interference in software, and we run cycle-time studies against your real rate. Simulation is also what makes change survivable: when an interface shifts mid-project, a modelled cell gives you a structured way to work through the new configuration instead of starting again.
Custom fixtures.
Locating and clamping that holds the part correctly through the whole process, including when the part arrives at the edge of its tolerance rather than the middle of it.
End-of-arm tooling.
Grippers, vacuum, magnetic, and multi-function tools. Tool changers where one robot has to do more than one job. EOAT is where most cells are won or lost, and it is the component most often left to the end.
Design for tolerance stack-up.
Every component has a tolerance band. When several components in an assembly arrive near their limits at the same time, the cumulative stack can push the assembly outside what standard tooling accommodates. In volume production that is not an edge case, it happens regularly. Designing tooling that absorbs the full envelope while holding repeatability and cycle time is real engineering, and it is the work that separates a cell that runs from one that runs on Mondays.
Design for maintenance.
If a part of the machine will be serviced, it has to be reachable. On one aerospace cell we put all three robots in below-floor pits specifically so maintenance vehicles and people kept their access to the cell during production.

Proof

Sub-millimetre alignment across three feeder stations

On a high-volume automotive assembly cell, two robots each had to pick from three separate feeder stations. The robots do not adjust their path between stations. There is one programmed position for pick and one for drop. If any station drifts, the pick fails.

That meant all three stations had to be aligned to sub-millimetre precision against a single programmed position, and hold that alignment through the thermal and dynamic conditions of a production environment. Engineering that consistency into the mechanical design, rather than relying on the robot to compensate, required rigour beyond standard machine building practice.

Absorbing a mid-project interface change

On an aerospace material handling cell, the robot had to interface with a tractor-and-conveyor system built by a third party. That interface drove reach studies, tooling design, and cell layout, and it was defined early because everything depended on it.

Midway through, the third party changed their design. The pick moved from the outside of the tractor mechanism to an inside grab, closer to how a pull stud engages in a CNC spindle.

It was the right engineering decision. It gave more consistent part presentation and removed external interference from the pick cycle. It also meant revisiting reach studies, adapting the end-of-arm tooling, and revalidating simulation work already completed.

The point is not that the change happened. On any project where multiple parties build in parallel, it will. The point is that the simulation work already done gave a structured way to work through the new configuration quickly instead of starting from scratch, and the schedule held.

Starting a conversation

  1. The part and its variants, with tolerances. All of them, including the ones you think are edge cases.
  2. The process steps you need the machine to perform, in sequence.
  3. The constraints you cannot move. Floor space, ceiling height, existing equipment it has to tie into, plant standards.

If the process itself is not proven yet, start with Process Development & R&D instead. Designing a machine around an unproven process is how projects get expensive.

PROVEN ON THE PRODUCTION FLOOR

All case studies
Automotive, Tier 1

Automating the Unautomated

Twelve robots, seven components, and a 12.8 second cycle

12.8 sAchieved cycle time, against a sub-14 second contractRead the project Nuclear

Eight Feet, Four Hundred Pounds, and No Fence

Inside a nuclear machine tending cell

Under 30 sRobot pick to placement in machine, including door cycleRead the project Transformer manufacturing

Nobody Had Automated This

Why the AI buildout runs through a transformer core that was still laced by hand

83 – 140Laminations in a single transformer core, every one placed by handRead the project

RELATED CAPABILITIES

Robotic Systems & Assembly

Connect part handling, assembly, inspection, and packaging in a complete robotic cell or production line.

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Process Development & R&D

Resolve the difficult picks, delicate parts, and process unknowns through focused trials and prototype tooling.

Read more

Controls & Machine Vision

Connect PLC logic, robot motion, operator interfaces, and inspection into one coordinated process.

Read more

THE NEXT MOVE IS YOURS.

What could we
build together?

Bring your part, your process, or the problem you haven’t solved yet.

Download the capability sheet One page. No form.

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