Author: Mary-Jane Owen

At Macfab Manufacturing, we have a common goal: We will produce the most precise and complex components using collaborative relationships among product design, engineering, production, and assembly while controlling production costs.

Our “One Stop Shop” approach highlights our commitment to form, fit, and function throughout a product’s life cycle.

The One-Stop Shop Advantage

Our “One Stop Shop” solution means taking on more responsibility for the entire product lifecycle. Integrating design, machining, assembly, and testing under one roof allows us to optimize tolerances and part fitment for a simplified assembly and supply chain, giving us a higher success rate in the assembly processes. This comprehensive approach helps minimize errors and reduce the need for costly revisions during later stages of production.

By streamlining the supply chain and reducing complexity for customers with simplified designs, we can accept more responsibility to provide a turnkey final product. As a result, clients benefit from faster time-to-market and a more predictable cost structure.

Synergy between Design and Production

When CNC machine shops concentrate solely on machining components, there can be a disconnect between design and assembly. These communication glitches may not manifest until the final assembly reveals that the tolerances established early in the process did not account for proper fit and function. This can lead to delays, costly rework, and potential quality issues.

Integrating design and assembly teams leads to optimized tolerances and part fitment, resulting in improved success rates and lower production costs. It allows us to design components for manufacturing and assembly. The one-stop-shop approach enables us to simplify a complex system through communication and collaboration.

The Importance of Collaboration

We encourage close communication between design engineers, manufacturing, and assembly teams to better understand machining constraints, tolerance stack-ups, and assembly requirements.

The one-stop-shop concept gives us a significant advantage when designing, machining sub-components, cleaning the parts, assembly, and testing. Now, we are responsible for not only the form of the part but also its fit and function.

This integrated approach has repeatedly resolved client issues and led to better outcomes for them. Design for manufacturing (DFM) can simplify complex systems and reduce manufacturing costs for our clients. And all of this is possible because of our established collaborative relationships.

Macfab’s Expertise

Our expertise in managing complex multi-part assemblies stems from our emphasis on collaboration among design engineers, the shop floor, and our assembly teams. This focus on communication ensures everyone understands tolerances and assembly requirements, eliminating unwelcome surprises during final product assembly. Whether it’s adjusting a design for manufacturability or refining assembly techniques, our team works together to achieve seamless integration from start to finish.

This synergy of design and assembly under one roof benefits our clients through improved quality, efficiency, and ease of business. By managing the entire lifecycle, we deliver a cohesive solution that streamlines production, reduces costs, and ensures a higher level of customer satisfaction.

Reach out to Macfab, and we can discuss your complex component design and assembly needs, ensuring you experience the benefits of a collaborative, full-lifecycle approach.

At Macfab, we aim to create a supportive work environment that encourages and empowers employees. These are not merely words taken from a standard mission statement. Instead, they are part of our commitment to cultivating a progressive work environment that develops leaders within the company.

Here is our ultimate goal in this endeavour:

The Core of Macfab’s Culture

We believe that a culture centered on empowering employees to take on leadership roles nurtures an environment of trust and collaboration, enhancing motivation and job satisfaction. The company’s ethos of support and encouragement enables skill development and innovation as our workers bring fresh perspectives to problem-solving.

This empowerment also aids in succession planning, ensuring continuity and stability within the organization. Additionally, it promotes a sense of ownership and accountability, resulting in improved overall performance and productivity, positively impacting the organization’s success.

Fostering a Supportive Work Environment

We believe in nurturing talent and offering meaningful career development opportunities. We understand that our advanced manufacturing work requires unique skills, and we encourage our workers to take the initiative and learn these challenging but rewarding skills.

Our company’s approach prioritizes developing our existing workforce into tomorrow’s leaders rather than hiring experienced leaders externally. These methods reflect our core values of investing in our people and promoting from within to create strong, capable leaders.

Delegation & Decision-Making

Our company understands that open communication, involving employees in strategic decisions, and delegating responsibility empower our workers because they see we trust them. It builds their skills and decision-making abilities while cultivating trust and strengthening their sense of ownership and accountability. Through delegation, employees gain confidence, experience, and motivation. This process provides opportunities for employees to advance their careers and take on leadership roles.

Feedback, Coaching, & Recognition

At Macfab, we use feedback and coaching to help our employees grow and develop their leadership skills. We create a supportive environment by focusing on their strengths while addressing areas for improvement. By involving our team in decision-making, we tap into different perspectives while enhancing engagement and showing that we value their opinions.

This teamwork builds trust, sparks innovation, and gives a sense of ownership to our employees, resulting in greater job satisfaction and overall success for our organization. At Macfab, we acknowledge and celebrate our employees’ hard work through meaningful recognition programs.

Whether it’s awards, bonuses, or shout-outs on the shop floor, we tailor our appreciation to make it feel personal and impactful, nurturing a culture of gratitude and motivation. By regularly celebrating achievements, we lift morale, reinforce the behaviours we want to see, and strengthen employee engagement and retention.

In Summary

Our leadership development approach at Macfab is to have a supportive work environment that encourages and empowers employees. We are confident that our continuous investment in people will always be the secret weapon for achieving our strategic company goals and the cornerstone of Macfab’s success story!

At Macfab Manufacturing, collaboration is at the heart of everything we do. Specializing in high-precision CNC machining, we work closely with our clients to transform ideas into reality. Our approach goes beyond traditional manufacturing; it’s a partnership built on shared knowledge, open dialogue, and a deep commitment to optimizing designs for manufacturability through collaborative engineering.

A History of Collaboration

Founded in 1987, Macfab has grown from a small plastic parts shop to a full-scale CNC machine shop. It has a long history of partnering with innovators, scientists, and engineers to bring their ideas to life.

The process may even start with a simple sketch or napkin drawing. Then, along the way, we work closely with the client to provide manufacturing feedback and expertise.

From Concept to Reality

Macfab helps clients by engaging with them to optimize their designs for manufacturability. We provide suggestions on materials, tolerances, and manufacturing processes to keep costs down.

By having open and collaborative discussions, we can identify creative solutions that meet the client’s needs, transforming simple sketches into viable products while staying within budget. Our collaborative approach has allowed many clients, from individual inventors to large corporations, to bring their innovative products to market successfully.

Design Optimization for Manufacturability

Design for Manufacturability (DFM) means creating product designs to make manufacturing faster, cheaper, and more efficient. Consider it streamlining the drawing before machining begins.

Using DFM principles, we help clients refine their designs, advising on materials, tolerances, and processes to control costs without compromising quality. It ensures their product is production-ready by tweaking and simplifying designs early in the process. It’s like giving their product a head start toward high-quality manufacturing.

The Power of Open Discussion

Our discussions with clients about their needs and budgetary constraints create an environment of trust and shared understanding, enabling them and us to work collaboratively towards solutions that meet their requirements while respecting financial boundaries.

This approach leads to more successful projects and builds stronger, more productive long-term relationships between our clients and us.

Beyond Machining: A Comprehensive Partnership

Macfab excels in versatility through its design and manufacturing processes in precision machining, assembly, and specialized services like prototyping and testing. Our expertise spans complex parts production, integrated assembly solutions, and custom engineering.

This versatility allows Macfab to serve diverse industries, ensuring high-quality, tailored products. By combining advanced technology with skilled craftsmanship, we enhance our role as a complete partner in product development, supporting clients from initial design to final product delivery.

The Success of Collaboration

Macfab has formed strategic partnerships with clients to solve complex design challenges, such as accommodating tight tolerances on specific parts. For instance, a client came to us with a three-foot diameter plastic part, asking us to hold +/-.005″ when we knew plastic could change .030″ overnight from temperature shifts and material stresses. We informed the client we could develop a process to maintain a tighter tolerance, but they must accept higher costs. Our teams, working together, agreed on a solution that would resolve possible future conflicts on pricing.

The Culture of Continuous Improvement

Macfab is dedicated to continuous feedback and communication, ensuring transparency and collaboration. We actively accelerate innovation and implement cost-saving measures, constantly refining engineering and manufacturing processes to enhance client outcomes. This commitment to proactive dialogue and efficiency ensures tailored, high-quality solutions that deliver significant value and technological advancements, benefiting clients across various projects.

Collaborative engineering with Macfab ensures tailored, innovative solutions driven by expert insight and mutual dialogue. Consider partnering with Macfab for your innovation needs and experience unmatched dedication to excellence and collaborative growth in engineering solutions.

CNC design optimization involves refining part designs to improve manufacturability, reduce production time, and lower costs while maintaining or enhancing product quality. This approach considers various aspects of the CNC machining process during the design phase to create efficient parts that produce and meet functional requirements. These integrated design and engineering approaches result in more efficient manufacturing processes.

Geometric Complexity

Complex shapes generally lead to higher machining costs, as intricate geometries require longer machining times. Complex parts could necessitate multiple machining operations, slower cutting speeds, or more frequent tool changes. They might also require more sophisticated CNC machines with higher operational costs, such as 5-axis machine tools.

At Macfab, we encourage collaboration between design engineers and CNC machinists to streamline complex designs and control costs on CNC machined parts.

Tool Access and Part Features

Design elements like deep pockets or thin walls increase machining costs and lead times. Excessive cavity depths require specialized tooling, and thin walls need special techniques and slower machining speeds. Both add significant costs to a machining project.

Macfab’s design experience allows us to provide feedback to help clients optimize their designs for manufacturability. We understand tools have a limited cutting length, and limiting the depth of cavities minimizes tool deflection and enables holding tight tolerances while improving surface finish.

CNC Design Optimization

When designers incorporate multiple components into a single part, they almost always increase complexity, making it more challenging to machine efficiently. Conversely, sometimes, the most minor adjustment to a design is the simplest and most cost-effective solution.

For example, recently, a client needed a hex in the back of ten 1/4″-20 screws for prototyping. Although they were considering broaching or EDM, two rather expensive options, to accomplish this, we suggested providing enough corner relief in the design to allow machining the hex.

The client got the prototypes quickly and held down their costs.

Material Considerations

Although choosing a material according to the needs of the component is essential, it also makes sense to consider the cost. Some alloys can be twice the price of others because of their chemistry, so you should consider if the lower-priced stock will work equally well for your needs.

Engineers working with CNC specialists during the material selection phase can offer suggestions that save material costs and machining time.

For instance, consider the raw stock. If you design a part to be .75″ thick, that’s a standard bar stock size, meaning you must machine it from 1″ stock and mill it down to the finished thickness. However, if you can design that component to be .65″ thick, you can use .75″ stock, saving on labour and material costs.

Considerations for CNC Manufacturing

To shift from product design to design for production, consider the following design strategies:

• Reduce part complexity when it doesn’t compromise functionality.
• Optimize designs for easier machining by maximizing the size of internal features to allow for larger cutting tools.
• Avoid thin walls and deep cavities that require special techniques and slower machining speeds.
• Choose materials that are easier to machine when possible, as this can reduce tooling wear and machining time.
• To facilitate efficient CNC machining, specify adequate radii in corners, looser tolerances whenever possible, and different surface finishes on various faces.

Conclusion

Balancing design intent with production needs ensures a seamless pathway from concept to creation. Transitioning from product design to production design requires embracing manufacturability. Designers can enhance CNC machining efficiency by accommodating material limitations, ensuring sufficient wall thickness, and optimizing pocket depths. Early in the design process, engage a CNC machining expert, like those at Macfab, to help you optimize your designs for CNC machining. They will ensure the potential for reduced costs and improved production efficiency.

However, it’s important to note that not all projects can be perfectly optimized for the most ideal settings. Every design comes with its unique challenges and constraints. At Macfab, we thrive on tackling these complexities, helping clients navigate through the most difficult hurdles, and optimizing designs to give you the best chance at success. Whether you’re dealing with intricate geometries or tough material choices, we’re here to find practical solutions and bring your ideas to life.

Reputable CNC machine shops build their production process on quality and reliability. CNC machining ensures high-quality parts and components that meet the most demanding quality standards. AS and ISO certifications significantly influence CNC project outcomes by providing quality, dependability, and consistency in CNC machining services.

These international standards assure clients that a CNC company or project adheres to quality assurance from a globally recognized entity.

Understanding AS & ISO Certifications

AS (Aerospace Standards) certifications assure compliance with stringent quality, safety, and reliability standards specific to the aerospace industry. On the other hand, ISO (International Organization for Standardization) certifications, such as the ISO 9001 standard, are more comprehensive, establishing quality management system standards across various industries.

Both certifications enhance credibility, ensure high-quality production, and facilitate international business, demonstrating that a company meets consistent, recognized quality and reliability benchmarks in its manufacturing processes.

Quality Assurance and Process Standardization

Certification plays a crucial role in standardizing processes across the manufacturing industry, significantly improving quality, efficiency, and consistency. The consistent application of certified procedures ensures material conformity and reliable first-article inspections in manufacturing processes.

For the aerospace, space, and medical industries, these certifications, such as AS9100 for aerospace and ISO13485 for medical devices, are crucial for risk management, compliance with international regulations, and cultivating trust among stakeholders. They ultimately drive innovation and improve reliability and safety in critical applications. This approach enhances quality control and traceability, regulatory compliance, and risk mitigation throughout the production cycle.

Reduced Errors and Enhanced Outcomes

AS and ISO certifications help to reduce production errors and improve the quality of CNC projects. Because of their rigorous standards and systematic approaches, these certifications establish comprehensive frameworks that enhance quality control, promote continuous improvement, and minimize human error.

For example, certifications such as ISO 9001:2015 require actions to prevent human production and service errors, achieved through defined processes, precise requirements, and operational planning and control.

Certifications are crucial for risk management, compliance with international regulations, and promoting stakeholder trust, ultimately propelling innovation and improving reliability and safety in critical applications.

Customer Satisfaction and Industry Confidence

These certifications signal a company’s commitment to maintaining high quality and standards, as they require ongoing compliance with strict guidelines. By adhering to recognized benchmarks, companies demonstrate reliability and consistency, which enhances customer trust and satisfaction. This commitment positively impacts client relationships and repeat business.

Quality certifications like ISO hold reputable companies like Macfab Manufacturing to higher quality standards and standardized processes. They ensure material conformity, first-article inspections, and other procedures across the organization.

The certifications help improve customer satisfaction, demonstrating Macfab’s commitment to quality. In addition, many of the company’s vendors also have ISO certification as a minimum requirement.

Certifications as a Business Norm

Today, ISO certifications are often a baseline requirement for CNC machine shops, establishing a standard of quality management expected across all industries. Their pervasiveness highlights their importance in ensuring consistent product and service quality, enabling trust and reliability, and facilitating seamless international business operations and partnerships.

Final Thoughts

AS and ISO certifications elevate CNC machining standards by ensuring precision, reliability, and compliance. Clients are encouraged to prioritize certified companies like Macfab, as these certifications guarantee adherence to industry best practices, enhancing product excellence and reducing risks, ultimately leading to better outcomes and heightened customer satisfaction.

The precision in CNC machining ensures high-quality products that meet exact specifications and function correctly. It allows shops to produce components with tight tolerances, complex geometries, and intricate designs, essential in aerospace, medical devices, and the automotive industry.

A manufacturer’s inspection process helps maintain quality standards, and the 5-axis coordinate measuring machine (CMM) is an innovative technology that revolutionizes these quality-control processes.

The Importance of Inspections in CNC Machining

Meticulous inspection processes in CNC operations verify that machined parts meet specified dimensions, tolerances, and surface finishes. Delivering products that meet or exceed customer expectations builds long-term relationships and trust. Adequate quality assurance means each product maintains the highest standards.

However, traditional challenges within manufacturing include time-consuming manual inspections and the potential for human error, which can lead to costly defects and rework. Relying solely on humans to enforce quality standards limits efficiency and accuracy, increasing the risk of overlooking minute discrepancies in complex geometries. These challenges hamper productivity and extend lead times.

The Advantages of 5-Axis CMM

5-axis CMM technology offers several benefits that significantly enhance measurement capabilities and efficiency:

• Synchronous Movement: 5-axis CMMs allow simultaneous movement of the machine and probe head, enabling measurements beyond the standard CMM measuring volume.
• Increased Efficiency: 5-axis technology measures multiple features in one setup, reducing inspection time and increasing throughput. They can reduce measurement time significantly compared to conventional probing methods.
• Enhanced Flexibility: 5-axis CMMs provide infinite positioning capability, allowing the probe to be at any angle. This feature ensures optimal access and minimizes the need for stylus changes.
• Improved Accuracy: 5-axis CMMs can measure complex parts and features more accurately, including curved surfaces, deep pockets, and intricate geometries that are difficult or impossible to measure with 3-axis.

Macfab’s Technological Advancement

Macfab Manufacturing leverages advanced 5-axis coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) to enhance inspection precision and efficiency. With a recent software update, our machines now allow for quicker programming and more user-friendly features for our employees. This move speeds up the inspection process since the new CMM requires fewer probes and has more flexibility in programming.

Faster inspections translate into quicker turnaround times for clients by reducing the time spent on quality checks, allowing parts to move swiftly through the production pipeline. 5-axis technology accelerates delivery schedules, enhances customer satisfaction, and boosts throughput for the company.

By staying updated with inspection technology and simplifying the process, companies can minimize bottlenecks, avoid costly delays, and increase operational efficiency. Adopting advanced inspection methods provides a competitive edge, enabling a firm to offer superior service, reduce human error, and effectively meet market demands.

In Summary

Companies that keep pace with technological advancements in CNC machining maintain precision, efficiency, and competitiveness. Embracing modern inspection systems reduces errors, speeds up production, and enhances customer satisfaction. Ultimately, staying technologically advanced ensures sustainability and growth in an increasingly demanding and evolving manufacturing landscape.

Contact Macfab to learn more about our CNC solutions, 5-axis CMM capabilities, and how these can benefit a wide range of projects!

Material selection in CNC prototyping is critical. CNC prototyping refers to using CNC machine tools to produce physical models directly from digital designs. The process transforms 3D designs into prototypes, allowing product developers to test and refine their concepts before mass production.

The importance of CNC prototyping in product development includes:

1. High Precision and Accuracy: CNC machines can precisely replicate complex designs, ensuring that prototypes match the original CAD models.
2. Rapid Production: CNC prototyping accelerates the development cycle by quickly producing prototypes for testing and validation.
3. Design Verification: It allows designers to assess the form, fit, and function of a design, making it easier to identify issues and make necessary adjustments.
4. Cost-Effectiveness: Early detection of design flaws can prevent costly mistakes in the later stages of production.

The main challenge in CNC prototyping is selecting a material that matches the properties of the final product in areas such as tensile strength, mechanical strength, weight, and heat resistance or within the prototyping budget and timeframe constraints.

The Influence of Material Selection in CNC Prototyping Design

Suitable material selection in CNC prototyping is challenging. Companies must face the harsh reality of material availability. Designers who want to use premium materials that offer top-notch performance may find these materials costly and not readily available. This discovery can damage a budget and lengthen lead times. In other words, companies must pay more and wait longer.

Because of this, many businesses opt for available materials such as 6061 aluminum and 303 stainless steel for prototyping. They balance their desire for rare or high-end material with the practicalities of budget management and project timelines and are open to design tweaks.

Material Science and Accessibility

Material experts often grapple with constraints where their theoretical knowledge and innovative ideas face real-world limitations, particularly regarding material availability. While they might identify groundbreaking materials with superior properties for various applications, sourcing them can be challenging because of factors like high cost, limited supply, or manufacturing complexities.

Additionally, scaling these materials for mass production often presents hurdles, as theoretical advancements must align with industry infrastructure and economic feasibility. These constraints mean balancing pioneering research with practical solutions, driving material experts to innovate within the boundaries of what is readily accessible and economically viable.

Practical Steps for Ideal Material Selection

When selecting materials for prototyping, companies should prioritize functionality by ensuring they meet the necessary chemical resistance, impact resistance, and strength-to-weight ratio requirements. Assess durability based on environmental conditions like temperature, moisture, and wear resistance to enhance longevity. Consider manufacturing timelines by favoring materials with reliable supply chains to prevent delays. Current supplier inventory trends indicate that many suppliers are moving towards just-in-time stocking.

Balance performance with budget constraints, seeking cost-effective alternatives that still fulfill design needs. Also, verify material availability to maintain production schedules.

This strategic evaluation helps balance performance, cost, and timeline, ensuring a project stays on track and meets all essential design objectives.

Wrapping Up

Successful CNC prototyping stems from a strategic approach to material selection. When companies carefully evaluate functionality, durability, timelines, and budget, they ensure a project’s immediate and long-term success.

If you’re looking for a strategic partner to help prototype and manufacture your product, reach out to the experts at Macfab.

CNC machining plays a critical role in producing accurate and high-quality medical devices. This article highlights its importance in medical analytics equipment manufacturing, such as blood and urine analysis devices and cancer research tools. Learn how CNC machining improves precision and drives innovation in medical technology.

The Marriage of Medicine and Machining

Analytical devices, including blood and urine analyzers, cancer detectors, and therapeutic drug monitors, are indispensable in today’s medical landscape. They allow healthcare professionals to diagnose, monitor, and treat conditions accurately and efficiently.

At the heart of producing these precise tools is CNC technology, which has transformed the manufacturing of medical devices. CNC machines bring unmatched precision and consistency to the production process, which is critical for ensuring patient safety and the reliability of diagnostics.

By adhering to stringent specifications, these machines create intricate components for these devices, significantly reducing the risk of human error. Their automated processes guarantee uniformity in production, cutting down variability and boosting reliability.

The precision of these devices enables them to operate as required, propelling innovations in personalized medicine and leading to better patient outcomes and breakthroughs in healthcare.

Precision and Repeatability in CNC Machining

The precision and accuracy provided by CNC machining services are essential for the medical industry. Even the slightest error in medical device manufacturing can lead to complications.

The ability to produce components with exact specifications and tight tolerances directly impacts the performance and reliability of analytical medical devices and detection equipment, reducing the risk of errors during medical analysis.

Medical devices must comply with stringent regulatory standards beyond typical manufacturing requirements, and CNC machining offers the precision and repeatability that medical device manufacturing demands.

CNC machining excels in producing high-quality medical components batch after batch, reducing variability and enhancing the reliability of medical applications.

The Diminishing But Persistent Demand for CNC Machining

Emerging technologies like microfluidics and 3D printing are reducing CNC machining’s dominance in manufacturing by introducing new capabilities and efficiencies. Microfluidics enables the creation of intricate, small-scale fluid channels essential for lab-on-a-chip devices. At the same time, 3D printing offers rapid prototyping and the ability to produce complex geometries that traditional CNC machining may struggle to achieve.

These technologies complement CNC machining by expanding possibilities and offering alternative manufacturing methods for specialized applications, although CNC’s future remains optimistic for high-volume, critical components requiring rigorous quality control.

CNC Machining’s Adaptation and Innovation

CNC machining companies adapt to changing demands by incorporating advanced technologies and embracing flexible manufacturing strategies. For example, Macfab Manufacturing is integrating automation, real-time monitoring systems, and advanced CAD/CAM software to enhance efficiency and precision.

By investing in employee training and state-of-the-art equipment, we maintain quality, precision, and repeatability, meeting evolving industry needs without compromising standards.

Final Thoughts on Medical Precision Machining

CNC machining will continue to play an essential role in medical analytics by delivering a precise and reliable manufacturing process for producing high-quality medical devices. Its ability to make complex, accurate components ensures these devices meet stringent industry standards.

Due to its unparalleled precision and reproducibility, CNC machining remains robust despite emerging technologies. Explore Macfab’s CNC solutions to discover how we can elevate your medical analytics manufacturing needs, fitting seamlessly into the industry’s high demands and pushing the boundaries of innovation.

There’s real business value in keeping things simple.  Complicated arrangements in manufacturing introduce possible points of failure, delay, and hidden costs.  That’s perhaps the most compelling argument for working with a quality one-stop CNC machining solutions shop like Macfab.  If a problem arises, you know exactly whom to call.  If your production needs change, a call can address the changes.  Not only that but when you’re dealing with a one-stop shop, there’s no debate about whom is responsible for what.

Checking Our Work

Since 1987, Macfab has set out to be a one-stop CNC machining shop.  We have invested heavily in cutting-edge technologies all along.  We don’t just focus on machining, though.  We have a full complement of metrology equipment.  From all the standard micrometers, profilometers, and surface plates, on up to 5-axis coordinate measuring machines, we can measure every dimension and specification on your parts.  We’re fully AS9100 certified, of course.  We are happy to run any inspection requirements you have, right up to full inspections on each part.  Our long history of producing medical devices means we’re quite familiar with making sure every part meets every spec, and our documentation software creates reports to satisfy any regulatory requirements you may face.

Finishing What We Start

Providing one-stop CNC machining solutions means we also handle parts finishing.  Painting and powder coating are simple enough, of course, but we go well beyond that.  Our finishing department can provide mirror polishing and chemical polishing to improve microscopic surface defects where bacteria or other contaminants can hide.   Mirror finishing can also improve the wearability of parts by reducing friction.  It also makes parts look good if that’s a concern.

Simplifying Your Inventory

Once individual parts are manufactured and tested, we can assemble them for you, including brazing and welding of parts that have to be produced separately.  As a one-stop shop, Macfab has clean room facilities to handle your assembly needs, up to and including the micro-assembly of incredibly fine parts.  Simplify your inventory by letting Macfab turn individual parts into prefab assemblies for your own assembly lines.  You can save valuable line space and time.  We even have the facilities to package your parts or assemblies however you need them.  You can get your work from us protected from damage or contamination and arranged as you need them for your own assembly lines.

Superior Service at all Stages

We offer many other services to take care of our customers.  If your parts require truly flat surfaces, we have full lapping capabilities.  When a flat surface is required, there is no higher standard.  We offer plating to protect your parts from oxidation or provide a tougher surface.  Our Swiss turning machines can produce custom screws or other tiny components.  Our expertise in cleaning and packaging has saved more than one critical project from failure when other shops couldn’t solve their problems.

We have always worked to provide every service our customers need, no matter how precise the work may be.  In fact, the more precision it calls for, the more we enjoy the challenge.  After 35 years and literally centuries of CNC machining experience among our crew, we take great pride in being able to overcome every challenge that comes through the door.  That’s the kind of expertise that a one-stop CNC machine shop can bring to your next project.

 

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When you’ve got a new part to manufacture, it doesn’t take long for the price tag to come up.  CNC machining costs can be daunting.  Fortunately, the cost of CNC machined parts is not cast in stone.  You do have some ability to keep your costs down.  It all hinges on attention to detail and working with a professional CNC machine shop like MacFab as early as possible in the design process.

Materials Matter

Before you have your first drawings, you know what your product is going to do.  You know the temperature range in which it will operate, the kinds of environment it will be exposed to, and what other equipment it will connect to or interact with.  You have enough information to begin looking at materials. Issues like machineability, thermal expansion, and corrosion resistance, help dictate your materials choice.

Is your part going to mount to a stainless-steel component?  You’ll need to avoid aluminum.

Is weight crucial?  Titanium may be called for.  There are a host of considerations.

Your engineers are responsible for designing your product, but do they work every day with the metals industry?  The answer is almost certainly No, and that’s why bringing in our engineers at this point makes a lot of sense.  They know the countless varieties of materials and can help you choose the specific material that suits your needs and possibly save you some money.

The Shape of Things

The geometry of your product can make or break a project.  By optimizing the design for manufacturing, you can save a lot on your CNC machining costs.  MacFab’s engineers can help arrange the design to make it easier to produce.  They can often show you how to reorganize a product to save having to use the more complex (and more expensive) CNC machines.  They can make sure your design can be set up once for milling rather than having to be turned multiple times to reach all features.  That saves a lot of expensive manufacturing time.  The shop can know well in advance what kind of tooling they’re going to need for your job and have it on hand and ready to go.

Another point on geometry is your tolerances.  The more and tighter the tolerances you specify, the greater your CNC machining costs.  Use your CNC machine shop engineers to help you determine what tolerances actually matter and what don’t.  Focus on the important points.

Finishing

Tolerances lead straight to the next point: product finishing. Whether your product requires powder coating, abrasive bead blasting, logos, instructional signage, or other finishing touches, address these needs as soon as possible. Don’t leave them until late in the game. You may need to wait for certain design aspects to be finalized, but make arrangements as they become possible, and work with MacFab so we can plan ahead.

Labor Savings

By working with MacFab and taking advantage of our expertise, you can save significantly on labor and the cost of CNC machined parts. When the engineers are familiar with your project, they can schedule and arrange labor well ahead of time, knowing that the materials, tooling, and equipment will all be ready to go as needed.

If you’re involved with manufacturing, it’s inevitable that you’ll have to ask how much CNC machining costs. Focusing on these points above from the beginning of designing your product can yield tremendous savings. At least as importantly, focusing on these details can save you from delays, product failures, and unexpected expenses during manufacturing when your customer is expecting you to deliver.