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What You Need to Know About Injection Molding Gates

Is your injection molding project ready for success? Sure, you’ve thought about most of the injection molding manufacturing process. You’ve designed your mold with care, researched and selected the right material, and finished your CAD file or part drawing. But have you considered the type of injection molding gate to use? A gate might seem […]

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Introduction to CNC Milling Cuts and Toolpaths

This article is a companion to Getting Started with CNC, an introduction to the different types of CNC milling machines and the software used to design the parts they produce. Here, we’re going to discuss CNC milling terminology, toolpaths, and common operations. Chip Formation You may have seen images like Figure 1, which show how […]

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Finding the Right Secondary Operations After CNC Machining, Part III: Hardware Installation

This is Part III in our series on CNC machining secondary operations, where we’ll be discussing hardware installations — we covered heat treatments and post-processing finishes in Parts I and II.  Hardware installation is an essential step for joining multiple parts to create the final product and is always performed after heat treating and post-processing […]

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Finding the Right Secondary Operations After CNC Machining, Part II: Finishes

CNC machining is but a single step in the new product creation process. First, you design the part, then it’s carved by a CNC machining service or shop, and finally, you put the finishing touches on it! This is the second in a series of three articles discussing those finishing touches. Here in Part II […]

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Your Guide to Injection Molding: From Design to Production Parts

For any engineering project, countless hours go into 3D modeling, prototyping, and refining the design. Often, the final step is to prepare your designs for the injection molding process, but where do you start? How long will it take to go from the initial part designs to your first molded parts? This is a long […]

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Tolerance Stack Ups 501: Going Beyond Mechanical Fit and Into Predictive Design

Oh hey — I caught your attention! Guessing it was the 5-oh-one in the title, up from the 101 you might already be familiar with (self high five for engineer David trying to be a marketer). Welcome to my article (TED talk?). Here I’m going to walk you through the flow of how to set […]

Article

Tolerance Stack Ups 501: Going Beyond Mechanical Fit and Into Predictive Design

Oh hey — I caught your attention! Guessing it was the 5-oh-one in the title, up from the 101 you might already be familiar with (self high five for engineer David trying to be a marketer). Welcome to my article (TED talk?). Here I’m going to walk you through the flow of how to set […]

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A Visual Guide to GD&T

Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) is a language of symbols and standards used by engineers and manufacturers to describe a product and facilitate communication between entities working together to produce something. By deepening your knowledge around how to create a well structured GD&T, you will improve communication with your machine shop and ensure everyone involved is […]

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Getting Started with CNC Milling

Computer numerical control, or CNC, is one of the most common and well-known automated processes in manufacturing. CNC machines help companies and individuals make manufacturing processes easier to inspect and control while reducing human errors. They’re used for milling, turning, plasma cutting, electrical discharge machining, water jet cutting, punching, drilling, laser cutting, and more. This […]

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Engineering Tips from the Director of Program Management at Igor Institute

In this edition of Engineering Heroes, we sat down with Kathy Fedirchuk, Director of Program Management at Igor Institute. During our conversation, we talked about overcoming the challenges of new product introduction during COVID, the importance of setting clear expectations with internal teams and suppliers, and the advantages of using a form template to facilitate […]