Manufacturing guides
Practical guides for engineers and designers who send parts to manufacturers: which process to choose, how to prepare STEP files and drawings, and how to design parts that cost less.
Start here
- Manufacturing processes compared
- Preparing and optimizing STEP files
- What a manufacturing drawing needs
- Design for cheaper CNC parts
Processes
- CNC milling (3-axis)
- 5-axis CNC machining
- CNC turning
- Wire and sinker EDM
- Laser cutting (sheet metal)
- Sheet metal bending
- Waterjet cutting
- FDM 3D printing
- SLA resin 3D printing
- SLS and MJF 3D printing
- Metal 3D printing (DMLS/SLM)
- Injection moulding
- Die casting
- Investment casting
- Sand casting
- Aluminium extrusion
Design for cost
- Internal corner radii for CNC pockets
- How deep can a milled pocket be?
- Minimum wall thickness for CNC machining
- Choosing hole sizes that are cheap to make
- How deep should a tapped thread be?
- Reduce setups to cut machining cost
- Design around standard stock sizes
- Tolerances: tight only where it matters
- Surface finish and what it costs
- Chamfers or fillets on outside edges?