NMX‑AJT‑080 / Rev 00 / ±0.08 mm · TRACKER CERTIFIED / Noida · India 2026 · Product Page

NMX-AJT-080 · ENGINEERED TO ORDER — AEROSPACE PRODUCTION TOOLING

The aircraft’s geometry, held in steel.

Name: Aerospace Assembly Jigs & Form Block Tooling
Brand: Neometrix

Form blocks, trim jigs, chemical milling templates and assembly jigs — the production tooling every sheet-metal aircraft part is born through. Designed from the customer’s CAD, fabricated as stress-relieved steel weldments machined and jig-bored after relief, and certified by laser tracker with interchangeability locations held to ±0.08 mm. Engineered to order — no delivered jig package is claimed on this page.

Enquire — production tooling Capability sheet (PDF)

Illustrative image, not a delivered installation — an aerospace assembly jig station: a large welded steel frame in fresh blue-grey paint standing on levelling feet on a workshop floor, carrying machined removable locator brackets, contoured support plates and bushed reference blocks, with no aircraft structure present

Fig · 01 An assembly jig station — the locators are the geometry — illustrative, not a delivered installation

Interchange

±0.08mm

Templates

±0.20mm

Quoted

592tooling types

Per part

T1–T3tool family

Certified

Lasertracker

ISO 9001 / 14001 Engineered to order ±0.08 mm interchangeability First-article proving in scope Noida · India

Overview

One drawing tree. One tooling tree.

An aircraft is thousands of sheet-metal parts, and almost none of them can be made with hands and a drawing alone. Each part is born through its own small family of tools, numbered against the part’s drawing: a form block the annealed sheet is formed over, a trim jig that defines its net edge and holes, and — where skins are pocketed for weight — a chemical milling template that masks the etch. The drawing tree casts a shadow, and the shadow is tooling.

Illustrative image, not a delivered installation — aerospace form blocks and trim jigs: a workbench and rack holding several contoured steel form blocks with smooth swept surfaces, and flat trim jig plates with machined edges and rows of hardened drill bushes, in a clean toolroom

Fig · 02 Form blocks and bushed trim jigs — a tool family per part — illustrative, not a delivered installation

The tooling is held tighter than the parts it makes. A jig’s job is to transfer the drawing’s authority to the shop floor, so its own errors must be small enough to disappear inside the part tolerance: interchangeability locations to ±0.08 mm, counter templates to ±0.20 mm — across structures the size of a room.

Stress is the enemy of geometry. Locators are mild-steel weldments — and steel that still carries welding stress moves when you machine it, or worse, months later. So the build order is absolute: weld first, thermally stress-relieve, then machine and jig-bore. Welding and dimensional checks are offered for inspection before relief, and the stress-relief certificates travel with the tooling.

A jig is not equipment standing beside the production line. It is the line’s memory of what the aircraft is supposed to be.

Engineered to Order

Quoted against real programmes, claimed honestly

Engineered against repeated Indian aerospace production-tooling requirements — including seven tenders covering 592 form-block and trim-jig types in eight days, and assembly-jig packages for nose, front-fuselage and wing sections. No delivered jig package is claimed; every package is designed fresh from the customer’s CAD.

Nothing Bought-In

The first page where everything is fabrication

There is no proprietary core inside a jig — no compressor, no controller, no vendor black box. It is steel, welding, stress relief, machining, jig boring and metrology, end to end. Only standard elements — bushes, pins, rails, dowels — come from approved commercial ranges.

Certified, Not Asserted

The calibration chain goes all the way down

Finished tooling is set and certified by calibrated laser tracker against engraved targets and bushed reference blocks — and the calibration certificates from accredited laboratories cover not just the tracker, CMMs and gauges but the stress-relieving furnace itself.

Lifecycle

From the customer’s CAD to a certified tool.

The schematic below follows one tooling package from model receipt to production service — and the detail panel follows one single part through its tool family.

FIG · 03TOOLING LIFECYCLE · DESIGN · FABRICATE · RELIEVE · MACHINE · CERTIFY · PROVE

Fig · 03 Weld → relieve → machine, in that order — then the laser tracker turns a steel structure into a certified instrument

Arc · 01

Form Blocks & Trim Jigs

The form block carries the part’s contour — the annealed sheet is formed over it, springback and all. Its partner trim jig then locates the formed part and defines the net trim edge and every hole through hardened drill bushes, so the edge and pattern come from the tool, not from an operator’s scribe line.

Arc · 02

Chemical Milling Templates

Where a skin must lose weight without losing stiffness, pockets are etched, not cut — and the chemical milling template is the mask that decides exactly where the maskant is scribed and peeled. The pocket boundary on the finished aircraft is wherever this template says it is.

Arc · 03

Assembly Jig Structures

Main and sub-assembly jigs are welded steel frame stations on levelling feet, carrying removable locators — each one a weldment that was stress-relieved, then machined, then jig-bored to its position. Removable, because locators wear and get damaged in service, and geometry must be replaceable without rebuilding the frame.

Arc · 04

Set, Certify, Prove

The finished structure is set with a calibrated laser tracker against engraved target points and bushed reference blocks built into the jig — interchange locations to ±0.08 mm. Then first-article proving at the customer’s works: parts are made on the tool, and any rework the proving demands is in the builder’s scope until they pass.

Have a tooling package, jig or fixture requirement? Send the tool list and CAD — clause-by-clause compliance matrix within two working days · [email protected]

Send tender spec

Specifications

Reference scope, sized to your tool list.

The parameters below describe the reference tooling scope. Package content, structure sizes and delivery schedule follow from the customer’s tool list, CAD and programme cadence.

Illustrative image, not a delivered installation — jig certification by laser tracker: a laser tracker head on a heavy tripod aimed across a workshop at a welded steel jig frame, with a spherically mounted reflector seated in a bushed reference block on the structure and a small engraved target point nearby

Fig · 04 Setting the jig by tracker — the reflector sits in a bushed reference block — illustrative, not a delivered installation

Where jigs actually fail

Not by breaking — by moving. Residual welding stress that creeps out over months, a locator nudged by a dropped spar, a repair that was never re-measured. The jig keeps producing; the parts drift; and nobody notices until assemblies stop interchanging.

That is why the discipline on this page is arranged the way it is: stress relief before machining so there is nothing left to creep; removable locators so damage is replaceable; and engraved targets and bushed reference blocks built into the structure, so a tracker can re-certify the jig in place, years later, against the same references it was born with.

Full specification — expand

Scope	Aerospace production tooling — design, development, fabrication, installation, erection, commissioning, certification by laser tracker and support during first-article proving · quoted and delivered on a package basis (main jig with its sub-assembly jigs)
Tooling Classes	Form blocks · trim jigs with hardened drill bushes · chemical milling templates · counter templates · main & sub-assembly jigs · gauges and secondary tooling in the builder’s scope
Design Inputs	Customer 3D models in NX / CATIA / STP with technical inputs · tool design in the builder’s scope, developed through staged design reviews · secondary tools required for manufacture also in scope
Structure & Materials	Fabricated steel frames on levelling feet · removable locators as mild-steel weldments, thermally stress-relieved, then machined and jig-bored · standard elements (guide rails, bushes, pins, dowels, fasteners) from approved commercial ranges
Accuracy	Interchangeability locations ±0.08 mm (80 µm) · counter templates ±0.20 mm · engraved laser-tracker target points at minimum engraving depth so readings survive repainting · bushed reference blocks (~50 × 10 mm, bush inserted) for setting and recalibration, positions nominated by the customer at jig setting
Build & QA Order	Weld → offer weld and dimensional inspection before stress relief → thermal stress relief with certificates → machine & jig-bore → mount and set elements by tracker · machining certified on the machine bed or by calibrated tracker
Certification	Set and certified by calibrated laser tracker (builder-arranged) · calibration certificates from NABL/approved laboratories for tracker, CMMs, instruments and gauges and the stress-relieving furnace · certification records submitted to the customer’s tooling inspection
Proving & Acceptance	First-article proving at the customer’s works · rework/adjustment during proving in the builder’s scope at no additional cost · final acceptance by the customer’s inspection and airworthiness quality assurance · 12-month warranty from taking over
Finish & Identity	Red-oxide primer with spray-painted structure and locator plates · riveted identification plates with engraved, colour-filled lettering · contour and datum markings preserved through paint
Delivery Form	Package basis — each main jig delivered with its sub-assembly jigs · schedule class ~2.5–7.5 months per package from order · installation and erection at the customer’s works in scope
Demand Basis	Engineered against repeated Indian aerospace production-tooling requirements — including seven tenders covering 592 form-block and trim-jig types floated within eight days, and assembly-jig packages for nose, front-fuselage and wing sections
Status	Engineered to order — tooling designed fresh from the customer’s CAD and certified by laser tracker · no delivered jig package is claimed · package content and schedule settled at design review

PDF · 1 page

Aerospace Jigs & Form Block Tooling — Capability Sheet

Tender Response

Send your tool list — compliance matrix in two working days

Packages

One discipline, four tooling packages.

Tenders group this work as form-block packages, template sets, or assembly-jig packages by aircraft section. The discipline — stress-relieved steel, bored locators, tracker certification — is common to all of them.

Pkg · 01

Form Block & Trim Jig Packages

The volume class — tens to hundreds of part-specific tool pairs per package, each formed block matched to its bushed trim jig, delivered against the customer’s drawing tree.

Pkg · 02

Chemical Milling Templates & Counter Templates

Etch masks for pocketed skins and the counter templates that check formed contours — template work held to ±0.20 mm, engraved and identified for life in the tool crib.

Pkg · 03

Main & Sub-Assembly Jig Packages

Frame stations for aircraft sections — a main jig with its family of sub-assembly jigs, quoted as one package, erected and certified at the customer’s works, proven on the first article.

Pkg · 04

Gauges, Fixtures & Tooling Refurbishment

Checking gauges and secondary fixtures — and the quieter duty: re-certifying, repairing and re-boring existing jigs against their reference blocks when programmes restart or tooling changes hands.

Applications

Where it applies.

Wherever airframe geometry has to be manufactured, repeated and proven.

A · 01Aircraft production programmes — sheet-metal detail tooling at programme scale

A · 02Fuselage & wing sub-assembly lines — main and sub-assembly jig stations

A · 03Chem-milled skin production — template sets for pocketed structures

A · 04MRO & licence production — re-tooling and jig re-certification

A · 05UAV & small-aircraft structures — the same discipline at lighter scale

A · 06Precision fabrication beyond aerospace — rail, energy and defence structures

FAQ

Common questions.

Plain-language answers from the engineering team.

Q · 01 Why does every part need its own family of tools?

Because aircraft sheet metal is not cut to shape — it is formed, trimmed and drilled to shape, and each of those operations needs the part’s geometry embodied in something harder and more repeatable than a drawing. The form block carries the contour the sheet is formed over; the trim jig carries the net edge and the hole pattern in hardened bushes; the chemical milling template carries the pocket boundaries where the skin is etched for weight. One part, one drawing number, one tool family numbered against it — so a production run of that part is the same part every time, and so is the replacement made ten years later. Multiply by the thousands of formed parts in an airframe and the scale of the tenders makes sense: production tooling is ordered by the hundreds of types, not by the piece.

Q · 02 Why weld first, stress-relieve, and only then machine?

Because welding locks enormous residual stresses into a steel structure, and stressed steel does not hold still. Machine a weldment before relieving it and the cutting itself unbalances the stresses — the structure springs as material is removed, and what measured true on the machine bed is no longer true on the floor. Worse, the remaining stress creeps out over months, in service, invisibly. Thermal stress relief first lets the structure do all its moving in the furnace, harmlessly; only then are the locators machined and jig-bored to their final positions, which they now keep. It is also why the inspection sequence is what it is: weld and dimensional checks are offered before relief, and the stress-relieving certificates are part of the delivery — the geometry is only as trustworthy as the metallurgy under it.

Q · 03 How do you certify a jig the size of a room?

Rarely with a coordinate measuring machine — few beds that size exist, and a jig cannot be carried to one. The instrument is a laser tracker: it follows a spherical reflector held against the structure and measures its position in three dimensions across the whole workshop, to fine fractions of a millimetre. The jig is built for the instrument from the start — engraved target points cut deep enough to survive repainting, and bushed reference blocks set into the structure whose positions the customer nominates at jig setting. Certification means placing the reflector point after point and proving every interchange location sits within ±0.08 mm of nominal. And because those references are permanent, the same jig can be re-certified in place years later — after a repair, a move, or simply on schedule — against the references it was born with.

Q · 04 What does ±0.08 mm interchangeability actually buy?

It buys the word “interchangeable” meaning what it says. Aircraft are built in sections — on different jigs, sometimes in different buildings — and those sections must meet at their joints with every attachment hole in agreement. The locations that govern those meetings are the interchangeability points, and if each jig holds its own points to within ±0.08 mm of nominal, then any section built on jig A mates with any section built on jig B, and a replacement assembly made years later still fits the fleet. Relax that tolerance and each aircraft quietly becomes a matched set of hand-fitted parts — buildable, but unmaintainable. The tightest number on this page is not about elegance; it is about whether a spare fits.

Q · 05 What is a chemical milling template?

Aircraft skins often need to be thick at their edges and fastener rows but thin everywhere else, and machining pockets into a curved, flexible sheet is slow and risky. Chemical milling does it without cutting forces: the formed skin is coated in an etch-resistant maskant, the pocket outlines are scribed and the maskant peeled from the areas to be thinned, and the skin is immersed so the exposed metal etches away to depth. The chemical milling template is the tool that makes the scribing repeatable — it fits the formed skin and defines exactly where every pocket boundary runs. The finished aircraft’s weight and stiffness distribution are wherever those templates put them, which is why they are part of the same tool family, held to the same discipline, as the blocks and jigs.

Q · 06 Do you design the tooling or build to the customer’s design?

Design and build — from the customer’s part geometry, not from a tooling drawing. The customer supplies 3D models of the parts and assemblies in NX, CATIA or STP form with the technical inputs; the tool design — structures, locators, bush positions, reference schemes — is developed in the builder’s scope and taken through staged design reviews before steel is cut. Any secondary tools needed to make the tooling are in scope too. Then the loop is closed physically: first-article proving at the customer’s works, where real parts are made on the new tools, and whatever rework the proving demands is carried by the builder at no additional cost until the parts pass. To be straightforward about status: this capability is quoted against live programmes but no delivered jig package is claimed on this page — each one starts from the CAD.

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Send your tool list
and your CAD.

The Defence Programmes desk replies within two working days with a clause-by-clause compliance matrix and a budgetary quotation. Write to [email protected] or use the form.

Enquire — production tooling Capability sheet (PDF) +91 7777 876 876

ISO 9001 / 14001 ENGINEERED TO ORDER — AEROSPACE PRODUCTION TOOLING ±0.08 mm · LASER-TRACKER CERTIFIED ENGINEERED IN NOIDA · INDIA

The aircraft’s geometry, held in steel.

One drawing tree. One tooling tree.

Quoted against real programmes, claimed honestly

The first page where everything is fabrication

The calibration chain goes all the way down

From the customer’s CAD to a certified tool.

Form Blocks & Trim Jigs

Chemical Milling Templates

Assembly Jig Structures

Set, Certify, Prove

Reference scope, sized to your tool list.

Where jigs actually fail

One discipline, four tooling packages.

Form Block & Trim Jig Packages

Chemical Milling Templates & Counter Templates

Main & Sub-Assembly Jig Packages

Gauges, Fixtures & Tooling Refurbishment

Where it applies.

Common questions.

Precision fabrication from Neometrix.

Multipurpose Installation Trolley

Mass Properties Measuring Instrument

Actuating Cylinder Indigenisation

Send your tool list
and your CAD.

Similar Products

Share This Page

The aircraft’s geometry, held in steel.

One drawing tree. One tooling tree.

Quoted against real programmes, claimed honestly

The first page where everything is fabrication

The calibration chain goes all the way down

From the customer’s CAD to a certified tool.

Form Blocks & Trim Jigs

Chemical Milling Templates

Assembly Jig Structures

Set, Certify, Prove

Reference scope, sized to your tool list.

Where jigs actually fail

One discipline, four tooling packages.

Form Block & Trim Jig Packages

Chemical Milling Templates & Counter Templates

Main & Sub-Assembly Jig Packages

Gauges, Fixtures & Tooling Refurbishment

Where it applies.

Common questions.

Precision fabrication from Neometrix.

Multipurpose Installation Trolley

Mass Properties Measuring Instrument

Actuating Cylinder Indigenisation

Send your tool listand your CAD.

Similar Products

Share This Page

Send your tool list
and your CAD.