For manufacturing companies, working to create a product or a prototype that is cost-effective and a timely manner is not easy. However, thanks to CNC machining services, they can now make products in volumes without investing heavily in tooling. It is an economical way of getting the parts done because it has a speedy turnaround time, with plenty of materials that you can make of, and it is precise you can repeat the production for up to a hundred thousand times.
In business, efficiency is always the goal, and ways to improve and optimize a design at a lower production cost is the only way to safeguard the bottom line. Using CNC machining services as the manufacturing method, you can have maximum efficiency at a lower cost if you follow the things that you need to consider.
Specify Only Critical Tolerances
You should your design carefully and identify the critical tolerances that are only necessary. This will save your CNC machining services from costly set-ups and they can eliminate the measurements of non-critical areas. For example, when you are specifying a particular radius in your 3D or 2D drawing, instead of highlighting them on all, the best thing to do is specify them on a feature that performs a critical role on that part. By doing this, you are minimizing the number of critical dimensions. When you have many critical dimensions, it will limit the CNC machinist and you will have to spend more on set-ups and time measuring areas that are not critical to the part.
Try Not to Go Smaller
To be cost efficient, your turned parts should not go lesser than .4mm in radius. Since most CNC turning process on a lathe is done by turning inserts, try to do them bigger. Designers see a smaller turned part as more precise, but in reality, it has a rough surface finish. Larger once can be done faster and will have a smoother finish.
Stick to Standard Radius for Inside Corners
This is another helpful design tip to apply when using CNC machining services. You should stick to the standard radius that is about 3 mm or even larger for the inside corners. This is because milling smaller internal radius is more time consuming; it needs special setups and hence more expensive. Because CNC milling is performed at right angles, it will be difficult to mill smaller radii at right angles. It can only be done by the smaller cutter, which runs slower than most.
Know the Surface Area
If you are using a small surface area, you need a small cutter that will run at a slower speed to prevent the machine from destroying the material. When your process is removing small pieces of material on each of the passes, it will definitely increase the lead times.
Deburr the Sharp Edges
In design, the sharp indication on the drawing usually does not have any numerical quantity. This is just an angle that results from joining faces during milling. If left undone, it will easily chip. The way to finish this part is through deburring. This is done by filing or rounding of the corners. The most economical solution and the fastest is to deburr simply the edges.
If you will use CNC machining, these design tip can help you save time and costs. In addition, your parts or products will come out better and durable.