Posts made in July 2020

Applications for CNC Milling Machines

The applications for CNC machining have grown extensively over the years. Today, there are numerous industries that rely to some extent on CNC milling and contract machining services. Here are just a few of the industries where CNC machining is a feature of the operation:

Automotive – Car manufacturers depend on CNC contract machine work for the custom parts they need to produce vehicles.

Metal Fabrication – CNC milling machines are a central part of companies that prepare metal for later manufacturing purposes.

Mining – CNC lathes make the metal extraction process more precise and efficient.

Packaging – CNC machines make precise grooves in packaging to allow for improved grip for better package protection.

Aerospace – Aerospace companies use CNC centers to prototype and produce a wide variety of parts.

Oil and Gas – Oil and gas companies need durable, high-performance parts, and CNC technology makes it easy to acquire them.

At Decatur Mold, we proudly offer contract CNC machining services. If you have any questions about our capabilities and production process, we are happy to take your call. When you need parts for your operation, we are the name you can trust for the quality you expect.

Doing Our Part To Help During This Pandemic

As an essential business, Decatur Mold has remained open throughout the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We have proudly supported our customers as they have developed solutions to address critical needs that have quickly arisen as a result of this national health crisis. Two recent examples are detailed below.

Fast-tracking an Air Purifier

One of our customers needed to fast track the production of an air purifier system to meet urgent safety requirements created due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Working hand in hand with our customer and leveraging our DFM capabilities to help with our customer’s existing part design, we created a schedule that would allow the seven molds needed to be designed and built in the five week schedule needed to meet their requirements. These molds were built using P-20 steel to run in a production atmosphere along with a required finish of a VDI 27 EDM texture. We completed all the molds as scheduled in five weeks to our customers standards. Sample parts were ran at Decatur Mold and delivered to our customer. These molds have been fine-tuned and are now in production at our customer’s facility! Once again Decatur Mold helped a customer get to the market quickly by leveraging our extensive capabilities, years of experience, and flexible manufacturing options.

Helping our Customer Support First Responders and Medical Staff

Within days of beginning the project above, another customer needed to fast track their project. This customer needed to hit the market with a respirator that would filter the COVID-19 virus to protect first responders and medical staff. Working hand in hand with our customer and again leveraging our DFM capabilities, we helped them develop the part design to insure manufacturability and created a four week schedule required by our customer to build the ten production molds. This program had one very extensively detailed part that created design concerns for our customer. We developed a plan to build a production base with QC-10 aluminum inserts to reduce cost and timing until the part concerns are put to rest and production could start. We would later construct P-20 steel inserts to replace the QC-10 inserts at our customer request. These molds required a VDI EDM texture finish. We completed all ten molds on time to the customer’s standards and sample parts were ran at Decatur Mold and delivered to the customer. Molds are presently in the process of undergoing some minor engineering changes and will be sampled again soon. Again, extensive capabilities, years of experience, and flexible manufacturing options has resulted in a successful customer project!

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Benefits of Injection Molding Services

Injection molding services have risen in popularity within the manufacturing sector. This is in large part due to advances in technology, the widening availability of materials, and improvements within the industry concerning training and quality control. In this post, we will go over a few of the benefits of plastic injection molding.

Plastic injection molding is a process that utilizes heat and pressure to make high-density moldings. This process is highly cost-effective and has made it easier for many manufacturers to increase production without making sacrifices in quality. Key advantages include:

Customization: Molding subjects the plastic medium to high pressures, which allows for a consistent production run. Due to the high pressure on the plastic, it allows for products that exhibit a high amount of detail.

Efficiency: After the mold has been designed and approved, it can be utilized for a high-yield production run. Since only one mold is required for production, this minimizes downtime lost through changing parts or similar processes.

Automation: Adding to the benefits gained from efficiency, plastic injection molding services are highly adaptive to automated processes. Once the CNC machinery has been configured, the processes require minimal intervention from technicians. This reduces labor requirements while keeping operating costs low.

CNC machinery has revolutionized injection molding processes. Contact your local CNC machining contractor to learn more about injection molding options.

The Importance of Accurate Machining for the Appliance Industry

In today’s fast-paced and production-oriented environment, it’s all too easy to consider CNC machining as part of a company’s daily operations. It is important to remember, however, that this school of manufacturing has a purpose–and it isn’t just for breaking quota records or meeting deadlines. Today, we will go over the function of precision, custom machining, and its relation to the appliance manufacturing sector.

Computer numerical machining utilizes computer technology to fabricate parts. Today’s home appliances are more sophisticated than before, which means the components which comprise them require a high degree of both accuracy and consistency. A part that doesn’t fit with the rest of the system means that the appliance won’t work. Worse, it can hold up production.

Custom machining remedies concerns regarding consistency and accuracy. Since these machines are assisted by software, it is easier to fabricate parts with the same specifications as noted in the design documents. Automation facilitates results that are repeatable and have little variance, which in turn reduces the likelihood of a manufacturing defect.

CNC machines are not infallible, however. Since they are utilized for making precision components, they also require maintenance conducted by highly trained and qualified technicians. It is up to the technician to change out tooling, verify fabrication orders, and make any necessary corrections.

When considering custom machining, it is important to team up with a crew you can trust. Contact your local manufacturing company to learn about their CNC machining capabilities.

Getting Parts for Less with Low-Cost Country Sourcing

Often, companies try to keep their product prices low by purchasing the materials and parts they use from lower-cost sources. The lower the production cost, the higher the profit margin. The math makes sense. However, customs and border regulations as materials and finished products pass from one country to another can become more muddled.

At Decatur Mold, we are not only a premier manufacturer of custom parts. We also provide full support in American foreign-trade zones. These are specially designated areas, similar to free-trade zones elsewhere, where materials can be imported, stored, and even manufactured into finished products and re-exported without the usual customs duties.

We employ special customs agents solely to support our customers that are using foreign-trade zones. We eliminate the confusion and hassle from the often stressful regulations that are a part of utilizing the benefits of these zones. If you are involved in low-cost country sourcing, our team is available to help you.

We’ll not only help you with the trade-zone aspect of manufacturing. As one of the few companies in the industry with a fleet of Kenworth trucks, we can also deliver your merchandise to its destination. We take pride in being the resourceful partner that are customers can count on.