Reducing the cost of parts is a crucial concern in the manufacturing industry. The cost of production has a direct impact on product competitiveness and profitability. In this article, we will explore effective methods that can help reduce the cost of machining parts without sacrificing quality. By understanding these methods, manufacturers can produce high-quality parts more efficiently, thus achieving the goal of cost reduction.
01--Make It Less Machining Time
Machining time is a significant factor affecting production costs. The longer the machining time, the higher the cost, and vice versa. By optimizing machining programs and processes can reduce machining time and lower production costs without sacrificing quality.
02--Optimized Material Choice
When choosing metal materials for CNC machining, it's important to consider several factors that impact cost-effectiveness. To ensure stable performance, ease of machining, reasonable pricing, and a reliable supply, it's essential to evaluate specific machining requirements and budget constraints comprehensively. By taking these factors into account, you can select metal materials that meet your needs and provide the best value for your investment.
Machinability: When it comes to CNC machining, precision, speed, and stability are critical factors, and selecting the right materials can significantly impact the machining process. Materials that are easy to machine, like aluminum alloy, copper, brass, and titanium alloy, should be given priority. These materials have excellent machinability, are readily available, and can be machined quickly, reducing overall machining costs.
Material strength: Material strength plays a critical role in determining the durability of parts produced via CNC machining. However, higher material strength also increases machining costs and difficulty. It's essential to select materials with moderate strength, such as medium carbon steel and stainless steel, based on specific needs. Additionally, a combination of various material strength, hardness, and other factors should be considered when choosing appropriate materials for machining.
Material cost: While high-end materials may offer exceptional performance and precision, their prices can be prohibitively expensive, requiring a trade-off between cost-effectiveness and budget. In contrast, more common materials like aluminum alloy, copper, brass, and medium carbon steel are relatively low-cost and easy to machine, making them a popular choice for many machining projects. Ultimately, the choice of material should be based on a balance of performance, cost, and other specific requirements.
Availability: In addition to performance and cost, the availability and supply stability of materials should also be considered when making a selection for CNC machining projects. Special materials like titanium alloy and nickel alloy may be expensive and challenging to obtain or have unstable supply chains. Therefore, it's crucial to address any availability and supply issues in advance when selecting these materials. Choosing readily available and stable supply materials can help prevent delays and ensure that the machining project progresses smoothly
Differenttypes of materials have different properties, and more information can be foundin this article.
Tolerance plays a crucial role in the machining process as it determines the allowable range of dimensional deviation for machined parts. In many cases, the dimensional tolerances can significantly affect the performance and functionality of the final product. Higher tolerance accuracy is directly proportional to better product quality and performance.
However, achieving higher accuracy of tolerance requires strict process control, quality inspection, and sophisticated tools and equipment, which can increase manufacturing costs. If not specified on drawing, normally will make according to ISO2768 standard tolerance. Only when absolutely necessary, controlling the number of critical tolerances can save you money.
04--Product Design
The cost of machining a part is significantly influenced by its size and shape. Complex shapes or large sizes increase machining difficulty, leading to higher machining time and costs. To lower production costs for complex parts, designers may consider breaking them down into separate components that can be machined individually and then assembled later. This simplifies machining, reduces machining difficulty, and helps to optimize production costs.
Designing product structures with standard materials can reduce material costs and machining expenses. By utilizing standard materials such as steel and aluminum thicknesses, threads, interfaces, and apertures, designers can simplify procurement and reduce costs. Using non-standard components requires customization, which can increase costs and lead times.
A wall thickness less than 0.794 is considered thin and requires higher precision machine tools and cutting tools during machining to avoid defects such as deformation or cracking. As a result, more machining steps and longer machining time may be required, which can increase costs. To reduce costs, increasing the thickness of the workpiece may be necessary. By doing so, the machining process becomes simpler, faster, and less prone to defects.
05--Quantity
Quantity is a critical factor in machining product costs and affects the selection of machining methods and equipment. Mass production lowers costs per product due to fixed costs being spread over more products, while small-scale production typically has higher costs due to fixed costs spread over fewer products. Mass production can utilize more efficient automated machining methods, while small-scale production requires more flexible manual or semi-automated machining methods. Selecting the right machining methods and equipment based on the quantity of products can help achieve an optimal balance between cost and efficiency.
06--SurfaceTreatment
Surface treatment significantly affects the cost of machined products. Usually, when a part is machined, tracesor scratchescan sometimes be left on part surface. Additional treatments, such as electroplating, oxidation, or sandblasting, require extra machining steps, leading to a significant increase in costs. To minimize the need for additional machining and surface treatment, it's important to consider the required surface finish during the product design phase. Selecting materials with desired surface finish properties can also help to reduce the need for additional treatments and lower production costs.
07--Delivery Time
Delivery time is another important factor to consider when assessing the cost of machined products. If rapid production and urgent delivery are required, additional costs such as overtime pay for workers and expedited shipping fees may be necessary, which will increase the overall production costs.
It's important to plan and communicate delivery time requirements in advance to avoid rush fees and minimize the impact on production costs.
