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CNC Materials Series: Best Methods for Cleaning CNC Machined Parts (An Overview)

Cleaning is defined as the removal  of dirt, impurities, or extraneous matter. You may not think of cleaning as an important part of your manufacturing processes, but it’s a critical post-CNC machining process. Why? Improper cleaning can result in quality issues that are entirely preventable with the proper methods. Here are some of those issues: […]

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Fictiv Named a 2022 Gartner® Cool Vendor™ in Manufacturing Operations

SAN FRANCISCO, September 8, 2022 – Fictiv, the operating system for custom manufacturing, announced today that it has been named a 2022 Gartner Cool Vendor in Manufacturing Operations. Each year, Gartner provides Cool Vendor reports which are designed to highlight interesting, new, and innovative vendors, products, and services. The report gives some recommendations to the […]

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Keep the Assembly Line Happy: 10 Design for Assembly Rules to Live By

“Perfection is achieved not when there Is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery Your day isn’t going well when your boss quotes a French novelist at you. In this case, my design was rejected because my boss thought that it wasn’t “elegant”… What? Days […]

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Your Guide to Injection Molding Overmolding

Overmolding in injection molding is a process that combines multiple materials together to form one single part. Typically, the first material (the substrate) is covered partially or fully by a second material (the overmold). The two most common applications for overmolding are: Combining threaded metal inserts with a plastic part  Combining a harder plastic with […]

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CAD File Formats and How to Export Them for 3D Printing

There are a lot of CAD (computer-aided design) file types out there, each with its own names, formats, and parameters. From STEP files to STL files, to IGES and more, it can be difficult to differentiate between them. This article will help you understand the difference between these file types, and which are best for uploading […]

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Nothing Gets In: Waterproof Enclosure Design 101 (and IP68)

Design guidelines for waterproof enclosure design, as well as IP68 waterproof rating design.

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GD&T: A Step-By-Step Guide

Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) is the building block of modern engineering drawings. To learn the basics of GD&T, check out our GD&T 101 article which includes the definitions and utilization of:  CNC machining tolerances The Datum Reference Frame (DRF) Interpreting GD&T Symbols Applying Geometric Symbols to Engineering Drawings The Feature Control Frame Communicating Basic […]

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Autumn Holidays Overseas: How to Mitigate Manufacturing Delays

The Mid-Autumn Festival is widely celebrated throughout Asia and is fast approaching. The festival is held on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar when the moon is full and celebrates the end of the autumn harvest — it’s similar to Thanksgiving in the US. In 2022, the festival falls on […]

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How to Prepare Files for Uploading to Fictiv

At Fictiv, we receive lots of different types files each day. In the world of 3D modeling, there are lots of options for sharing CAD data, each with their own strengths and weakness. When preparing to upload files to Fictiv, we prefer to receive a STEP file, but also accept properly exported STL files. STEP […]

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O-Ring Groove (Gland) Design Guide

Let’s say you designed a mechanical assembly that requires some sort of mechanical sealing. Or you have a maintenance project that requires additional sealing to a new joint. Perhaps your assembly has a fluid reservoir, requires cooling fluid to pass through, or you’re joining two components together and need them to sit flush. To solve […]