Rapid Prototyping and Low-Volume Manufacturing

Precision machining has become essential to the manufacturing sector. This subtractive manufacturing process often pairs expert designers and engineers with the most advanced equipment available to create parts and components with extremely intricate or complex geometries.

Plastic injection molds are typically constructed from hardened or pre-hardened steel, aluminum, and/or beryllium-copper alloy. Steel molds cost more, but are often preferred because of their high durability. Hardened steel molds are heat treated after machining, and they are by far superior in terms of wear resistance and lifespan. Many steel molds are designed to process well over a million parts during their lifetime. For lower volumes, pre-hardened steel molds provide a less wear-resistant and less expensive option.

Injection molding is the most cost-effective way to make a plastic part at scale. The injection molding process involves injecting molten plastic into a mold tool, then ejecting the solidified part. This process quickly repeats hundreds or million of times, amortizing the cost of the mold tool and driving down the cost of each unit to a few dollars or less.

3D printing is an additive technology used to manufacture parts. It is ‘additive’ in that it doesn’t require a block of material or a mold to manufacture physical objects, it simply stacks and fuses layers of material. It’s typically fast, with low fixed setup costs, and can create more complex geometries than ‘traditional’ technologies, with an ever-expanding list of materials. It is used extensively in the engineering industry, particularly for prototyping and creating lightweight geometries.

Sheet metal manufacturing is a subtractive manufacturing process that forms parts from thin metal sheets. Engineers often choose sheet metal parts for their high precision and durability, especially for end-use applications like chassis, enclosures, and brackets.

Die casting is the manufacturing process of choice when producing high volumes of relatively complex metal parts and is widely used due to its versatility, reliability, and accuracy. Die casting eliminates all or most secondary operations needed to make a metal part; however, post-machining is common to meet tighter critical-to-function tolerances. Die cast parts can also be post-processed in any finish their respective CNC machined counterparts can.