Author: Mary-Jane Owen

We get it.  Quality control isn’t the most exciting topic.  You get paid for production, not QC.  But we’ve never looked at quality control that way at MacFab.  More than anything else, quality control is what brings our customers back.  It’s also how we gauge our own professionalism.  We derive a sense of pride from the standards of quality that we maintain on every project.

Metrology is Part of the CNC Machining Process

QC is part of every job we do, of course.  Every component that comes out of the CNC machining process undergoes testing and measuring.  Every critical curve and dimension is checked against the design.  From the simplest folded metal to the most sensitive CNC machined components, we make sure that it’s within tolerances at every point specified by the customer.

We’re heavily invested in optical vision systems and coordinate measuring machines (CMMs), giving us micron-level accuracy in our measurements.  That’s well beyond the tolerances most components require.  Not only do we measure the locations of specific features, but also complex shapes.  Compound curves, parabolic curves, recesses and pockets, and radii all get tested and compared against specifications and tolerances.

Our metrology department is fully integrated, as well.  Our reporting and tracking software receives readings directly from the equipment -even tools like calipers and micrometers.  That ensures that measurements are accurate, with no reliance on reading someone’s handwriting, typos, or measurements not getting written down.

Our State of the Art Inspection Management Software Automates Tracking.

The software that records all of this information is ridiculously advanced.  Images and measurements of features, curves, and even surface smoothness are all recorded and tied back to ballooned drawings of each component, making it easy for your engineers to verify information at a glance.  That same software creates all of the documentation our customers need, from the First Article Inspection Report (FAIR) on down to lot tracking for materials and production batches.  The software output is more than sufficient to meet any requirements your job may bring.

There’s another benefit we glean from all of this metrology.  We can run every piece of a job through full metrology or use representative sampling.  Basically, we can provide any level of measurement your job needs.  All of the results tell us how we’re doing on your job.  Are we seeing a particular point that is marginal on the specs?  Are parts being rejected because of one particular feature?  Does the problem lie with our set-up or tooling?  Is a particular CNC machine having a problem?  Quality control tells us quickly, allowing us to adapt and fix it quickly.  That saves both us and our customers money and time.

Our investment and commitment to metrology is extensive.  We maintain a level of precision that’s often an order of magnitude higher than required by the work we do.  That will likely never change.  Precision will continue to increase, but we’ll stay ahead of it simply because we know it will never stop.  We don’t ever want to find ourselves in the position of telling someone we can’t do their job because we lack the accuracy required, either in the CNC machining process or quality control.  We want you to feel confident that MacFab is more than able to handle whatever your project entails, and we look forward to sitting down with you to plan it out.

 

Other articles that will interest you:

• Precision Military Components Made with CNC Swiss Lathes

It goes without saying that you want a good finish on your CNC machined parts.  If they’re painted or powder coated, you want a nice, shiny defect-free finish.  If they’re passivated, plated, anodized, or even bare metal you want to see parts that look like care was taken and attention was paid to making them.  What you may not realize is just how much attention it takes to produce CNC-machined parts that look professionally made.

Before the Chips Fly

Planning for the surface finish starts before the bit ever touches metal.  With few exceptions, rough cutting and finish cutting are performed with different tools.  Roughing in is often done at higher speeds, with larger bits or inserts.  Like Michelangelo removing everything from a block of marble that didn’t belong in his statue, CNC machining tends to make fast work of removing the bulk of the raw stock to get down to what your finished part will actually look like.  When it comes to cutting the part down to finish dimensions, finer bits, and slower speeds are generally used to minimize tool marks and avoid deflection of the metal, which would distort the part.

Seeing It Through

That’s just the beginning of the exercise.  Bits or inserts need to be swapped out regularly to maintain fresh edges for finish cutting.  Ideally, bits are designated specifically as roughing or finishing bits, even if they’re the same size.  Operators have to watch out for anything that can cause an interruption.  During surface finishing, if a bit has to stop for any reason -even if it just starts right back up it will leave a trace on the part.

Chips have to be carefully controlled during finishing as well.  Operators need to make sure clean coolant is washing chips out of the work area to avoid scratching the part.  Using free-machining (or “free-cutting”) steel for the parts can help as well, as the chips break away cleanly and are less prone to interfere with the bit. That introduces other considerations.  For instance, free-machining steel can’t be heat treated (though it can be case-hardened).  Some parts require heat treatment after CNC machining.

The Right Finish

Our customers in mission-critical industries like defense, aerospace, and medical fields all bring special requirements with their parts.  Aerospace, for example, is particularly complicated because if two pieces of metal happen to rub against each other and rub off whatever type of finish is applied -from paint to anodizing- those parts will fuse together in a heartbeat in a process called cold welding.  More than one spacecraft has suffered the effects of losing functionality because of faulty finishes.

Macfab has a long history of working on parts with critical surface finish requirements.  We’re obsessed with checking the finish to ensure it meets tolerances, just as we double-check dimensional tolerances.  Honing, surface grinding, sanding, and polishing all have different effects on the surface.  For some critical applications, those effects lead to poor performance or early part failure.  Even polishing to a mirror surface, which would seem to be the most perfect finish, can result in microscopic metal flakes that can break off, and contaminate with polishing compounds.  We know how to handle these situations, though.

Macfab has the CNC machines to produce the most complex parts.  We have the expertise to do it efficiently.  We handle all of our own metrology and reporting in-house.  Our cleaning regimens are second to none, and our finishing services are exacting.  Producing CNC machined parts that will pass every test and perform at least as well as required doesn’t happen by accident.  It’s something we love to do.

 

Other Articles You Will Be Interested in Reading:

• 5 Tips to Design Machine Parts for CNC Machining

You may think it doesn’t matter to you what kinds of machines your CNC machine shop has, but it should.  There are distinct differences between horizontal CNC machining and vertical CNC machining and those differences can save you money.

Keeping a Clean Work Area

Horizontal CNC machining has some serious advantages over its vertical cousin.  When a vertical mill cuts on top of a part, swarf (cuttings) can pile up.  That doesn’t stop the mill from doing its job, but it can keep the operator from seeing a problem.  Chip buildup can also lead to surface scratches, especially on plastic parts.  Horizontal mills have fewer such problems because they cut on the sides of parts, allowing chips to fall away from the cutting area.

Cutting Faster and Smarter

Horizontal CNC machining is also faster than vertical milling -often much faster.  One feature of the horizontal mill is the ability to spin the part around on the table.  This allows the part to be milled on all sides without the operator having to reorient it manually.  Not only is that considerably faster; but it is also far more accurate than if an operator has to reposition the part.

Horizontal CNC mills cut at feed rates you simply don’t see on vertical mills.  At Macfab, we use this additional speed to take lighter cuts.  Rather than hogging out large amounts of metal with one pass on a vertical mill, we can take several passes with the horizontal mill and approach the finished surface with greater precision.  Taking less metal off with each cut means there’s less chance for chatter in the bit, and you get a finer surface finish.  The speed of a horizontal mill over a vertical mill is genuinely something to see.  Even taking multiple passes where a vertical mill might take one, the horizontal mill is still faster.  The savings on wear and tear on the tools extend their lives significantly.  Maintaining light-cutting passes can mean completing a job with one bit when the same job would have eaten several tools on another type of machine.  Not only that, but the light passes also mean the horizontal CNC machining can yield a better surface finish in less time.

Keeping the Parts Moving

Four and five-axis horizontal mills like those we have at Macfab allow us to set up a part for milling while one is already being milled.  We can also change tools while milling operations are underway.  Both of these features make the horizontal mills faster than their counterparts.  Our operators and the mills have less downtime.

Horizontal mills are far more expensive than vertical mills, but they pay for themselves with the sheer volume of parts they can output.  Along with our prototyping and small job work, MacFab also does mid-volume production for our clients.  Our horizontal mills are instrumental in giving our customers the precision CNC machining they require in the numbers they need.  Macfab has a long history of investing to stay ahead of our customers’ needs.  Our ongoing investment in horizontal CNC machines is just part of that commitment.

 

Other Articles You Will Be Interested in Reading:

• Our latest multi-million dollar investment in CNC machines
• Benefits of Onshoring and Localization of CNC machining in North America
• 5 Tips to Design Machine Parts for CNC Machining

You don’t stay on top of your game by sitting still.  For CNC machine shops, that means keeping up with the latest technology and maintaining the latest abilities for your clients.  Macfab has just completed a multi-million dollar round of investments in CNC machines to make sure we can continue to provide the most advanced products for our customers.  Here are some of the highlights of the new machines you now have at your disposal.

• The Cincom Citizen Swiss turning machine brings twice the speed and double the accuracy of previous generations. It’s more energy efficient and able to run unattended (lights-out), which greatly speeds production times.
• Several Hyundai WIA turning centers allow us to produce parts completely in one operation thanks to their mill turret and sub-spindle. They have the most up-to-date controllers and are the most efficient in class for simultaneous milling and turning on one machine.  Their design makes them notably more accurate than other models.
• The HAAS UMC 500 can run as a 3+2 or a simultaneous 5-axis CNC mill. It brings a larger capacity, and the direct drive system improves accuracy and reduces wear.   The 30+1 tool holder is larger than most, and faster at loading tools.
• Several new HAAS VF-4 SS is our newest production workhorses. These vertical machining centers run at higher speeds with improved accuracy over previous generations.  They’re more energy efficient, with larger tables and ultra-fast side-mount 30+1 tool holders.  They can handle multiple-part loading and feature next-generation controllers, image screens, and remote monitoring.
• The Hoffman-American dynamic balancing machine provides a complete turnkey balancing solution for satellite rotors used for attitude control and navigation. Their permanent calibration eliminates calibration runs and speeds up production.
• The Kitamura horizontal mill provides an extra-large work envelope with outstanding accuracy. It’s 30% faster than vertical mills.  Chips and debris fall away rather than having to be cleared manually.  We can load 4 parts at once and can change parts while the machine is working on another part.  That eliminates downtime for machine loading and unloading.
• We’ve also invested in a new coolant recovery and recycling unit. This reduces the coolant that has to be disposed of.  Instead, we can clean it and return it to balanced specifications and reuse it.  This provides significant cost reduction and lowers environmental impact.

Probably the best thing about these specs is you don’t have to know them -because we do.  We didn’t just bring in these machines; we brought in their abilities.  These new machines allow our machine shop to cut production costs and speed production times, especially for mid-volume production runs.  We now have new capabilities in the level of detail we can provide, the tolerances we can meet, and the variety of complex CNC machine designs we can produce.  Macfab has a long history of bringing in the latest and greatest CNC machines, and you can bet this won’t be the last time.  There are always new needs and new capabilities, and Macfab is committed to keeping up with them.

 

Other Articles You Will Be Interested in Reading:

• When Precision CNC Machining Is A Race Against Time
• 5 Tips to Design Machine Parts for CNC Machining
• CNC machining for the largest electric vehicle manufacturer in the world

You’re designing a new part for CNC machining.  Design parts for CNC machining with cost savings in mind from the beginning. There are a few details you can address that can cut the cost of your CNC machined parts and speed up production.

Know Your Materials

Find out the standard size your raw materials come in and make your design fit well within those dimensions.  For example, if you’re going to have sheet metal parts CNC machined and you design them 3’6” long, only to find your raw stock comes in 10-foot lengths, you’re going to be buying a lot of waste material.  Get those stock dimensions and design your part to fit that with minimal waste to save money.

Cutting Recesses

If your part has recesses, consider the depth as a ratio to the diameter.  The rules aren’t hard and fast, but generally, the machining will go faster and easier if the hole’s depth is no more than three or four times the diameter.  You can certainly increase that, but just understand the deeper and narrower the pocket, the more care has to be taken when cutting it.

Also, design those recesses to have corner radii.  CNC machined parts manufacturers can certainly produce pockets with sharp corners, but that does call for extra work.  If your design can accommodate them, round those inside corners for quick cost savings.

Know Your Tools

On a related note, you’ll do well to know standard tool sizes.  For example, if you need a set of holes in a piece, designing them to be 0.625” will be notably cheaper than if they’re cut to 0.628” because 5/8” (0.625”) is a standard bit size.  Those holes can be drilled in one quick operation.  The very slightly larger holes are no problem to cut, but they do require a standard mill bit to cut a hole, then migrate around to ream it to the finished size.  It takes more time, so it costs more money.  Likewise, those inside radii mentioned above?  If your recess is 5” deep, designing a 1/8” inside radius won’t do you much good because 1/8” end mills don’t come that long.  Know your tools.

Watch the Details

It’s not difficult to get swept up in tiny details.  Remember those details can get expensive.  Design the critical features first -what the part needs to do the job.  Then you can come back and add the features you’d like to have.  That way you know you’re coming out with a functional part, and if it comes in over budget, you know which details you can scale back to bring costs back in line.

One detail that can get out of hand quickly is surface tolerances.  Of course, you’d like every feature to be accurate to a thousandth of an inch and shiny enough to see yourself.  But that’s almost certainly not what you need.  Reserve the critical tolerances for the critical points and use lower tolerances in other areas.  That speeds up machining.

Know Your CNC Machined Parts Manufacturer

That said, don’t be afraid to reach beyond what you think is doable. Work with your CNC Manufacturer.  They know a lot more about what’s doable than you do.  For instance, if you’re working with an experienced CNC machine shop like Macfab, they specialize in thin wall milling.  They can likely provide a thinner wall than you expect for the price.  That’s good information to have while you’re designing the part rather than after you’ve completed the first iteration of the design.

CNC Machined Parts Manufacturers are constantly adding new capabilities, new techniques, and new tools.  They have engineers on staff that are up to date on all of the latest material developments -both metals and plastics.  They know what can be done with today’s best equipment, and if you’re dealing with Macfab, they have all those resources ready for your project.  Let them be your primary design resource.

 

Other Articles Related to Design parts for CNC machining:

CNC machining challenges for the medical industry

When a new disease emerges, there’s a race to find the cause -bacterial, viral, fungal, environmental -some combination of those?  The cause informs us on how to fight the disease.  You wouldn’t think of a precision CNC machining shop like Macfab being involved in a race for a cure for a deadly disease, but that’s exactly where we are.

It may not sound encouraging to say we’ve been at this for years, but Sepsis is a disease as old as mankind.  It has a head start.  Once the domain of test tubes and microscope slides, medicine is now focused on DNA sequencing and editing, medical imaging, and devices that were unimaginable even a few years ago.  Macfab has long been a leader in these pursuits with our precision medical CNC machining.

Start the Clock

Sepsis can kill in 24 hours, has very high mortality rates, and is very difficult to treat.  The cause can be bacterial, viral, or fungal, and it’s the #1 killer worldwide overall.  It used to be called “blood poisoning”, but it’s really an infection that causes the body to attack itself.  The biggest hurdle to treatment is determining what the infectious agent is.

Doctors have long relied on blood tests to identify sepsis and pin down the cause in each particular patient.  Sending those blood tests to high-complexity labs for analysis often means waiting three or four days for results.  Sepsis won’t wait that long.  Doctors can try various treatments, but those treatments can cause their own problems.  If doctors don’t guess right, they can do more harm than good, and mortality rises every hour without effective treatment.  Rapid diagnosis is the only way to save those lives.

Shaving Days and Saving Lives

Several years ago, Macfab was approached by a company that had the goal of providing same-day identification of the pathogen causing a patient’s sepsis.  A streamlined, dedicated system that can generate reliable results in a day will save thousands of lives every year.  In the US alone, sepsis kills 250,000 people and costs $24 Billion annually.  This is the technology that will make a difference.

We didn’t have to think about it; this is the kind of work that Macfab was established to do.  Using the same blood sampling standards already in use, they have developed a way to produce reliable sepsis results in one-half to one-quarter of the time of existing technologies -and those results are more than 97% accurate.

Medical CNC Machining for the Win

The next hurdle is to package the test into a unit that can be deployed widely, and that’s where Macfab’s medical CNC machining comes into play.  Testing systems that work with biological samples like blood have to be incredibly precise.  Moving the sample and processing it has to be failure-proof.  Those pathogens can escape through the tiniest gaps.  If that happens deep inside an analyzer, cleaning the contamination and testing to verify that it is clean can take days.  As the sample is processed, the Medical CNC machined parts have to maintain positive control of the environment at all points.

Maintaining that level of precision while not impacting the efficacy of the test is a delicate dance.  For these units to save lives, they need to be available to doctors everywhere.  That means they need to be robust, as well.

The final result will be simply amazing.  Countless lives will be saved worldwide.  Macfab is incredibly proud to be involved in this work.  Working with the company, designing, prototyping, and testing is very rewarding.  It’s a race we will all win in the end.

 

Other Articles You Will Be Interested in Reading:

• Welcome to the Future of Space

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.  It’s an old Chinese proverb, and it describes the fortunes of one of Macfab’s clients perfectly.

The First Step – to the Garage

Years ago, a young Canadian engineer started a company in his garage.  He developed a machine which could do a simple thing.  At least, you would think it was simple.  Button batteries (like you find in your watch) require a tiny amount of electrolyte fluid to operate.  This young man figured out a way to deposit that electrolyte in batteries more accurately and consistently than anyone.  His improvement was both tiny and huge.  The difference in accuracy it made was probably measured in nanolitres, yet the accuracy and consistency allowed his customer to dramatically improve their battery performance and reliability.  They kept his prototype and told him to go make more.

The Next Steps

The young man got busy.  He had a product in demand.  His innovation began to yield big changes in a growing industry, and his business grew steadily.  Busy as he was, though, he wasn’t done innovating.  He continued to develop products for the battery industry as it continued to evolve.  Over time his company expanded, opening plants in South Korea, Europe, Malaysia, and China.

As his company grew and his developments became more complex, the company came to rely more and more on outside suppliers for various components.  They expanded again, with a new facility in Japan. As the complexity increased, so did the problems.  They began to experience delivery delays from their vendors.  Then there were quality control problems.  It’s not possible to run a company known for its precision if you can’t get precisely manufactured parts.

Turning A Corner

It was about this time that the company met Macfab.  The company explained their problem; Macfab explained their CNC machining capabilities.  It seemed like a perfect match, so the company gave Macfab one small order.  Macfab delivered the parts on time and to spec.  The company gave Macfab another order that went off without a hitch.  Then orders on a couple of other parts.  All came in on time and meeting specifications.

Time to Run

That was about the time the company caught the attention of the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer (who has a slight interest in battery manufacturing).  They bought the company.  Macfab has become their supplier of choice, continuing to provide highly complex components, both at home in Canada, as well as in Japan.

The parts the company now requires are of such high tolerance that other shops won’t touch them.  There simply aren’t many shops that can tackle this level of complexity with the high tolerances needed at the production level required.  Macfab’s investment in a battery (pun intended) of Swiss Turning Machines and the highly skilled operators that run them gives Macfab CNC machining abilities you won’t find elsewhere.  What is impossible for most shops is accomplished in a single machining operation, followed by extensive quality control to ensure all of those specs are met.

Macfab loves growing with our customers.  If you think our unique CNC machining abilities and skillsets can help your company take that first step on your thousand mile journey, or boost your progress down the road, give us a call; we’ll be more than happy to help.

It seems like if you want to get a part manufactured today, you’re going to run into 3D printing and CNC.  It’s as if the entire world of manufacturing has gone to those two technologies.  Really, though, that’s not the case.  3D printing is a different beast; it’s almost always plastic-based; it’s slow, and generally better suited for simple prototypes, mold positives, or models.  That doesn’t mean you’re limited to CNC if you need something more.

Nearly a Century of the CNC Machining Process

CNC stands for “Computer Numerical Control”.  It came about in the 1950’s, though the Computer aspect came along later.  A lot of the even older mills and lathes are still out there, in everyday use, producing outstanding work.  They were built to last, and they are perfectly happy cutting with modern bits and tools with great accuracy.  They rely on the skills of the operator.  CNC milling relies on operator skills as well, but it’s a somewhat different set of skills.

CNC milling generally starts with a CAD (Computer Aided Design) drawing on a computer.  This lays out the shape of the part with all the dimensions, angles and details like thread pitches.  When you’re sure your drawing accurately depicts the part you want, it gets converted into a CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) file.  This is what’s used by modern CNC machines.  With the CAM file loaded into the machine, you set up the raw material, make sure the machine has the correct bits and tools, and turn it loose.  If everything’s right, you’ll wind up with a faithfully reproduced part.

Yes, that’s a pretty severe oversimplification, but in broad strokes, that’s the idea.  Complex parts may require starting from a casting.  They may require special hold-down tabs to allow the part to be secured in different positions during CNC milling.  They may require retooling or intermediate steps to verify dimensions along the way.  There are a lot of possible complications, but if the CNC machining process is the only way to create the part, that’s exactly what you do.

There’s also the question of just how complex your CNC milling needs are.  The simplest machines run three axis, just like their non-CNC predecessors.  In this day of highly complex parts, you can also find 5-axis, 7-axis, and even 9-axis CNC mills.

Simpler Can be Better

A great many parts don’t rise to that level of complexity.  Parts that can be efficiently formed from raw stock rather than a casting are less likely to require the capabilities of CNC milling.  Parts which don’t require complex curves on multiple axes and parts with lower tolerances are often easily produced on simpler mills, lathes, and press brakes.  Or you may find your parts can be produced using 3 or 5-axis CNC milling rather than something bigger. The beauty of that is lower cost.  The creation of CAD/CAM files, the setup of the CNC machines, and the higher operating costs translate to higher parts costs for you.  If you can minimize those costs or avoid them altogether and get your parts produced on manual or smaller CNC machines, your production costs will be considerably lower.

A professional CNC machine shop like MacFab will help you determine what kind of machining you should be shopping for.  They can tell you precisely what kind of manual or CNC machining process can produce your parts efficiently.  Rather then being swept up in technology, companies which need parts produced today have a greater variety of options than ever before, and MacFab is proud to be here to help them figure it out.

Everyone remembers the early weeks of 2020; nobody wants to go back there.  As COVID began to -quite literally- suck all the oxygen out of the room, demand for mechanical ventilators exploded.  This was just as countries began to go into lockdown and supply chains became unreliable around the world.  In response, Ottawa announced $1.1 Billion to be spent on producing a Canadian-made ventilator.  The goal, according to Prime Minister Trudeau, was to minimize the supply chain issues by keeping suppliers as close as possible.  No one knew how COVID was going to play out, but ventilators were playing a big part in saving lives, so it made sense to plan for high demand as the pandemic unfolded.

Five companies were selected to develop and deliver 30,000 ventilators.  MacFab was brought in to work with one of the primary contractors.  The program was announced in early April.  The first devices were expected within a few weeks and the entire project was supposed to be completed in a few months.  If wishes were horses, as they say…

Ventilators are complex machines.  They have to be able to provide the right amount of air with the right amount of oxygen precisely when needed to avoid putting stress on the patient’s organs.  Given the companies were designing these units from the ground up and many had no experience with medical manufacturing, that deadline was bound to be optimistic.

That’s where MacFab’s experience and specialized facilities proved to be vital.  When one set of parts came in below spec, MacFab was called in to save the day.  The parts were reworked to bring them up to specifications and inspected as we would any medical components.  The parts had been manufactured, cleaned, and packaged after a fashion, but not to industry standards, so we cleaned them as we do all medical components and packaged them properly.  That sort of thing is bound to happen when a shop that isn’t accustomed to machining for the medical industry suddenly finds itself dealing with far more stringent requirements than usual.

Along with our own production quotas, MacFab was called on again when problems arose with parts provided by another vendor.  In a similar situation, we had to jump in and rework a batch of components which weren’t up to specifications.  This second batch was potentially dangerous.  Burrs and debris had been left in the parts.  Had they not been removed; they could have wound up inside a patient’s lungs.  There was also a hazard of the debris reacting with the oxygen and creating toxic gasses in the airflow.  MacFab was again able to bring the parts up to spec, clean, and package them according to industry standards.  Macfab was selected to manufacture all the parts for the next batch.

Ventilators rely on diaphragms to pump air in and out.  Early product tests found problems with the diaphragms failing.  Once again MacFab was called in to solve the problem.  It turned out the diaphragms weren’t originally designed for ventilators.  They again had debris and manufacturing flaws that were preventing the diaphragms from sealing.  Once our engineers isolated and solved this problem, another turned up immediately.  Our engineers were able to demonstrate that the diaphragm and the valves they interact with were incompatible.  MacFab has extensive ventilator experience.  That was the only way we could have spotted and solved that issue.  Our engineers redesigned the valve to function properly with the diaphragms.

Largely due to the expertise provided by MacFab, the project was a success, delivering 10,000 ventilators in just a few months.  Most of them are warehoused, as they weren’t needed in the pandemic.  Some have been donated to other countries that ran into shortages.  As the Prime Minister said when the project was launched, it’s better to have them and not need them than the other way around.  The project shows the crucial importance of having a variety of highly specialized knowledge and capabilities.  It also shows that even in times of crisis, first rate skills and standards can still be applied to make a difference.  MacFab is proud to be part of that difference.

We see our possible futures through the eyes of science fiction writers. Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea stretched the limits of imagination.  Now it passes without notice on nuclear subs.  Anyone with the money can fly around the world in two or three days, never mind the 80-day challenge that astounded Victorian readers.  H.G. Wells wrote of time travel, invisibility, and genetically modified organisms a century before we knew about DNA.  Now demonstration projects are showing early attempts at invisibility and physics has demonstrated at least one form of time travel is possible.

The inspiration for the International Space Station floating around in low orbit dates to the writings of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in the late 1800s, then Von Braun demonstrated a model in the 1950s that eventually served as a model for Clarke’s vision in A Space Odyssey:2001 released in 1968.

First introduced to kids around the world in 1931, the miracle man of comic strip gadgets, Dick Tracy, popularized so many gadgets for children including the wristwatch-phone.  Today we have a much more powerful smartwatch for kids and adults alike.

Star Trek showed us the universal translator which Google is now perfecting.  Countless other inventions began in the imagination of science fiction writers: artificial intelligence, flexible screens, microscopic machines, driverless cars, and virtual reality -the list goes on.

It might take centuries for an idea to move from fiction to fact, but move they do.  What starts as a flicker in an author’s mind becomes a spark in a reader’s imagination.  They may spend their life working on the idea, and never achieve it, but that’s not failure.  Invariably they’ll move us closer to the goal.

That’s one of the amazing aspects of these times we live in.  Truly astonishing advances in manufacturing and materials science are accelerating our future.

Many of the things we do routinely today at MacFab Manufacturing were pure fantasy when we began operations.  The tolerances provided by Swiss turning and micro machining beggar belief, but it’s those tolerances that make these new developments possible.  Developments in metal chemistry has brought new alloys with amazing properties that, again, make these new machines possible.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the CubeSat industry.  Space makes everything difficult.  When the first CubeSat was launched in 2003, MacFab Manufacturing already had a lot of experience in the field.  Partnering with the brightest engineers, designers, and scientists, MacFab provided extensive research and development, as well as technical, design, and financial support to move the technology forward.

Now, satellites are smaller and more powerful than ever, with tighter tolerances, more precision machining, specialty finishes and plating, and specialty materials.  MacFab specializes in manufacturing components and assemblies for small satellites.  From concept to prototype to production, our extensive space-faring library includes gyroscopic reaction wheels and assemblies, sensor housings, propulsion nozzles, radiators, frames, manifolds, hinges, telescope and camera frames, xPods, release rings, latches, fuel cells and more.  MacFab provides the resources and expertise to move the parts from drawing to highly specialized components for the newest generations of satellites.

Those satellites are used for so many things that used to be science fiction.  Our partners use them for monitoring climate change, greenhouse and atmospheric changes, earth and environmental monitoring, agricultural optimization, maritime awareness, emergency and disaster response, security, defence, and the two most of us use every day, GPS and mobile communication.  It’s difficult to imagine what our lives would be like today without all of these things.

The next time you see a launch, notice how many satellites they’re releasing from that one rocket.  It’s not one or two; it could be over a hundred.  You can bet MacFab manufactured parts and assemblies, specialty cleaning and finishes for the aerospace industry are on board.  We’re extremely proud of the work we do to bring to life the ideas of the dreamers and the engineers.   Every job we tackle increases our knowledge and makes MacFab that much better.  We use what was once science fiction to enable tomorrow’s science fact.

Our job is bringing the future forward through experience and know-how.  Welcome to the future of space!