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What Is a CNC Machine Shop?
A CNC machine shop is a facility where you can get all your subtractive manufacturing done the right way. This facility often has high-tech machinery, skilled machinists, and other technical staff for maximum production capacity.
CNC machine shops house the best-in-class multi-axis machines that help to make parts with precise dimensions and complex designs. The CNC machining services offered include CNC turning, milling, drilling, shaping, cutting, EDM, etc.
Most CNC machine shops have a team of professional engineers who can help you with your designs and provide professional assistance. Generally, aerospace, automotive, healthcare, military, and other related industries are the primary focus of these CNC machine shops.
A top-quality CNC machining partner has state-of-the-art CNC technologies perfect for your custom parts. They help you bring your products to market faster to remain competitive in your industry.
What Can You Find in a CNC Machine Shop?
A functional CNC machine shop houses several pieces of equipment used for different operations. However, the facility’s size and purpose may determine the type and range of equipment you will find there.
The common CNC machines you will typically find in these shops include:
CNC Milling Machines
A CNC milling machine is one of the most crucial machine tools for custom manufacturing. It uses pre-programmed software to carry out automated subtractive manufacturing operations. This computerized machine has a vertical spindle and rotating cutter. It has a rotating cutter that removes excess material at a programmed speed.
In addition, CNC mills are available in different configurations, such as 3, 4, or 5-axis CNC machining tools. CNC milling machines with more axes help fabricate parts with complex designs and requirements. The 5-axis CNC mill is perfect for machining complex parts but is relatively expensive.
CNC Lathe Machines
A CNC lathe machine shapes a stationary workpiece using a rotating cutting tool. It consists of a chuck and multi-sized cutting tools. The CNC turning process is compatible with many materials, enabling operations like facing, knurling, and sanding.
Machinists automatically prepare the lathe by setting the cut speed, feed rate, and depth to achieve the preferred part dimension. Professional machinists often employ the CNC lathe to fabricate electrical components for different applications.
Drill Press
Drill presses are mainly used for drilling holes in workpieces. These machines have components like vertical spindles, clamps, chucks, and feed/manual levers. Machinists use the feed lever to control the movements and depth of the drill press as they make holes in a workpiece.
Coolants or lubricants also help machinists get smooth and accurate drills. Drill presses offer more power, accuracy, and stability than handheld drills. As a result, they are fundamental tools in machine shops.
Grinding Machines
These are powerful tools that grind workpieces with a high-quality abrasive wheel. A grinding machine shaves tiny hard particles off the machined parts, giving an exact dimension with a mirror-like surface finish.
The CNC grinding machine is prominent in surface finishing operations due to its high surface quality option. You can use them for tolerances IT 7 or higher. As a result, it is suitable for the precision grinding of components. However, you should note that they can be expensive and time-consuming.
Band Saw
The bandsaw is an electric multipurpose CNC cutting tool commonly used to make straight cuts. It consists of a metal band that rotates round and a flexible blade that moves downward for a perfect finish. It is usually a large tool with a worktable used for making precise cuts on metal, plastics, and various CNC machining materials.
EDM Equipment
Electrical discharge machining (EDM) equipment uses electrical sparks to cut through a workpiece. The EDM machine has a cutting force close to zero, ensuring that the workpiece doesn’t get damaged while processing. This equipment is more suitable for fabricating precision parts and die cavities.
Surface Finishing Tools
After manufacturing parts, they sometimes need additional features. Most CNC machined parts require a unique surface finish, like colors, mirror-like surface, smoothness, or glossiness.
As part of a custom CNC machining service, machinists often provide finishing services like bead blasting, buffing, painting, chrome plating, polishing, etc. Thus, a good CNC machine shop possesses a set of post-processing equipment.
Micrometers and Pin Gauges
Micrometers and pin gauges are tools used to measure different aspects of machined parts. The micrometer screw gauge helps to measure a part’s precise length, depth, and thickness. On the other hand, the pin gauge helps to inspect and measure the exact diameter of tiny holes in a part. This way, you can be sure of fabricating parts with the right dimensions.
How CNC Machine Shops Optimize Their Efficiency
CNC machine shops optimize their efficiency because it gives them many opportunities to improve and scale up their production. Here are some of the ways they go about it:
Quality Control and Inspection
A reliable machine shop performs full quality control and inspection across all production processes. It does this to create high-quality prototypes and tighter tolerances of CNC machined components. They use comprehensive inspection procedures for the quality control of CNC machined parts through:
- Inspection of CNC machined parts by machine operators.
- Visual inspection and verification of purchased products by receiving a quality control inspector.
- Products inspection using in-process probing.
- Efficient customer communication helps with ensuring customer satisfaction.
- Additional inspection by the quality control department.
All these steps facilitate customer satisfaction as the machine shop ensures that all parts have the exact specifications required by the customer.
High-Quality CNC Machining Services
CNC machine shops equip themselves with state of the-of-the-art and the best team of professional engineers. As a result, they fabricate high-quality CNC machined parts for various customers.
They have capable machinists that create parts precisely to the custom design specifications. A perfect combination of advanced CNC machine tools and expert machinists allows a CNC machine shop to achieve tight tolerances for multiple parts.
One-Stop Post-Processing
CNC machine shops offer quality post-processing as part of their CNC machining services. This allows the creation of excellent prototypes and finished products that meet industry standards. This way, you won’t have to partner with a different supplier for surface finishing.
Many surface finishing options help to enhance and give parts an aesthetic look. Some finishes also help improve the physical and mechanical properties of components, including corrosion resistance, impact resistance, and durability.
Improved CNC Machine Shop’s Safety
CNC machine shops improve the safety of their shop by incorporating essential safety rules. They learn to abide by these rules because the machine shop can be dangerous if the instructions are not followed. These are some of the ways manufacturers improve their safety:
- Flexible work timetable
- Using an appropriate dress code
- Effective waste management
- Frequent machine maintenance
- Hazard preventive measures
Industries That Use CNC Machine Shops
CNC machine shops offer the material flexibility, accuracy, technology, and machining capabilities that most industries seek. These are some of the industries that benefit from CNC machining services:
Aerospace
The aerospace industry employs machine shops to provide high-quality parts that are flight-worthy and lightweight. CNC milling processes allow engineers to make exact and accurate prototypes, fuel bodies, manifolds, transmissions, and aircraft structures.
Machine shops fabricate aircraft parts with complex designs, geometries, and hollow features. They create these parts from stainless steel, metal alloy, aluminum, and other industrial-grade materials certified for aircraft manufacture.
Automotive
The automotive industry benefits a great deal from the services of CNC machine shops. CNC machines help make automotive components like engine blocks, piston rods, cylinders, water pumps, and more. In addition, use CNC machining centers are used to drill engine components.
The automotive industry uses CNC machining services to manufacture the OEM parts used in newly constructed vehicles and other components like interior lighting and car headlights.
Electrical and Electronics
The electrical and electronics industry is widely dependent on CNC machining services. They make shafts, gears, electric motors, and many other parts with the assistance of CNC machine shops.
Healthcare
CNC precision machining has championed a significant breakthrough in producing safe and precise medical devices. These include reamers, hip stems, biopsy tubes, mod cavities, bone screws, inserts, spacers, and hip cups.
The healthcare sector requires accurate and precise parts for optimal functionality. The advancements in the CNC machining processes help manufacturers meet these unique demands. In addition, precision machining also helps produce prosthetic limbs and appendages, contributing to the quality of patient lives.
Military
The military sector relies on CNC machine shops to make high-quality products. CNC turning and milling techniques help fabricate high-quality precision parts for military purposes. They manufacture components from vehicles, drones, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), weapons parts, and other defense products.
Tips for Choosing the Right CNC Machine Shop
There are certain things to consider as a manufacturing brand willing to partner with a CNC machine shop. It is because some machine shops are more reliable, offer quality, and are more experienced than others.
These are some things a quality machine shop should offer:
Quality, Reliability, and Honesty
A good machine shop should use advanced CNC machines and measuring tools. It guarantees the quality of parts machined and the reliability of such a shop. If you doubt that the machine shop doesn’t have the required equipment, visit the facility to confirm before you partner with them.
A machine shop with a wide range of manufacturing capabilities is much better than one with limited capabilities. It offers quality and reliable CNC services. However, you should know that not all machine shops are honest about their limitations. It is best to find a shop that identifies its limitations than one that goes beyond its capabilities and fails.
Find an ISO Certified CNC Machine
Partnering with an ISO-certified shop with certified machine operators is essential when you want to work with a machine shop. It shows that such a CNC machining business offers high-quality services.
In addition, ensure that the shop follows the updated versions of ISO certification and not the outdated ones. CNC machine shops charge according to the market standard. You can check to confirm that you are not overpaying.
Dependable Lead Times
Time management is critical in any CNC machining operation. Delay is bad for business, especially during CNC milling and turning processes. Find a CNC machining shop that guarantees dependable lead times and swift delivery of custom-machined parts. A quality CNC machine shop uses modern software to estimate a project’s production time. It gives you detailed information about the delivery of the project.
Competitive Pricing
The CNC machining costs of machine shops differ. Factors such as the facility’s project size, experience, technology grade, and more influence the charging rates. When choosing a quality machine shop, you should get a manufacturer with great prices. However, this should not be to the detriment of quality.
Efficient Communication
A machine shop’s responsibility is to understand your needs and offer quality communication while handling projects. It should provide excellent client support and online CNC machining service. It should be readily accessible to manage all the details of your design using various means. In addition, it should be able to include you in all the stages of your project. Likewise, they should utilize feedback mechanisms and incite the project’s development.
Customer Privacy
A third-party machine shop that handles custom machining for businesses should be able to keep the details and designs of customers private. Confidentiality of design is of paramount importance to business owners. As a result, you can consider employing legal instruments that ensure strict customer privacy between a machine shop and its customers. Request the machine shop sign a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) before work begins.
AT-Machining – Your Reliable CNC Machine Shop
AT Machining is a reliable CNC machine shop with quality computer numerical control machining services. We have the required CNC machining resources to offer high-quality machined parts using various CNC machining processes.
We have the best team of expert engineers with an in-depth understanding of precision machining. We have ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 facility certifications. Contact us now; let’s handle all your projects as we offer high-quality parts with exact design specifications.
