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If you’ve ever designed and 3D printed a part that required high dimensional accuracy, you were probably disappointed with the outcome. Maybe a bolt didn’t fit into a 3D printed hole, or a 3D printed bracket didn’t fit into its intended recess. Whatever the dimensional intention, it’s likely that the 3D printed part didn’t serve […]
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Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) is an amazing technology that can manufacture complex shapes in a variety of conductive materials — and it produces tightly toleranced parts with excellent finishes. EDM is a subtractive electro-thermal manufacturing method that utilizes electricity to erode the surface of a part. Basics of Electrical Discharge Machining In general, EDM can […]
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CNC or Computer Numerical Control is, by itself, useless. Without hardware to execute the commands, CNC is nothing more than an array of vectors stored on a drive. Once CNC is married to a machine operation, however, the manufacturing possibilities are practically limitless! What is CNC? What exactly is Computer Numerical Control? Essentially, it’s when […]
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What do you do when you feel like you’re ready to move on from prototyping, but not quite ready to make production quantities of your parts? Sounds like you need a way to bridge the gap! Bridge production is your answer – using manufacturing processes that are suitable for low volumes but can give you […]
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Humans do not like change. Believe it or not, after calculators were invented, some people refused to give up their slide rules. Similarly, CNC machining was invented decades ago, yet there are still those who prefer manual machining techniques. This preference persists despite CNC technology’s ability to manufacture and replicate precision parts that are fully […]
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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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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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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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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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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 […]
