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Manufacturing Costs of 3D Printing vs Urethane Casting vs Injection Molding

3D printing, urethane casting, and injection molding: they’re each suited to different stages of the product development and production process, but how do you know when to use each one? A few factors go into this decision: cost, lead time, and quality. In this article, we’ll discuss indirect and direct costs and lead times for […]

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Monthly Supply Chain Update: November 2021

China Manufacturing parts’s Monthly Supply Chain Update series gives you insight into the logistics challenges, transit times, and related manufacturing issues we’re currently facing. Happy holidays everyone! Christmas is right around the corner, and we want to update everyone on how we’re managing our supply chain to keep production moving and fulfilling orders as quickly as possible. […]

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Working with Copper: Design, Machining, and Finish Requirements

Copper is a truly versatile metal. Copper has a naturally beautiful, shiny finish that makes it desirable for artwork, cookware, kitchen backsplashes, countertops, and even jewelry. It also has excellent material and electrical properties for engineered, complex parts, like EDM electrodes. There are many benefits to using copper for machined parts. Copper is one of […]

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What Causes Injection Molding Flash and How to Prevent It

Flash. It’s what you get when there’s a problem with your injection mold or with the injection molding process itself. Although flash can be addressed during post-processing, you may decide that it’s better to prevent mold flash in the first place. That’s often a function of tooling costs since flash-free molds are more expensive. For […]

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Monthly Supply Chain Update: October 2021

China Manufacturing parts’s Monthly Supply Chain Update series gives you insight into the logistics challenges, transit times, and related manufacturing issues we’re currently facing. In the early stages of the pandemic, demand for goods was depressed, and delays and shortages plagued production across industries around the world. While consumer demand and industrial activity have picked back up […]

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Enhance Your 3D Printing Workflow With CNC Machining in Post-Processing

If you’ve ever designed and 3D printed a part that required high dimensional accuracy, you were probably disappointed with the outcome. Maybe a bolt didn’t fit into a 3D printed hole, or a 3D printed bracket didn’t fit into its intended recess. Whatever the dimensional intention, it’s likely that the 3D printed part didn’t serve […]

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CNC Machining Copper Alloy EDM Electrodes

Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) is an amazing technology that can manufacture complex shapes in a variety of conductive materials — and it produces tightly toleranced parts with excellent finishes. EDM is a subtractive electro-thermal manufacturing method that utilizes electricity to erode the surface of a part.  Basics of Electrical Discharge Machining In general, EDM can […]

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Solving 7 Common Problems in CNC Machining Aerospace Components

CNC Machining for Aerospace: An Overview The aerospace industry is different from others because the consequences of a given part’s failure are dire. No need to go into details, but in general, everything needs to work perfectly every time. This means every gear needs to turn, every bracket needs to stay in place, and it […]

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CNC Operations and Applications

CNC or Computer Numerical Control is, by itself, useless. Without hardware to execute the commands, CNC is nothing more than an array of vectors stored on a drive. Once CNC is married to a machine operation, however, the manufacturing possibilities are practically limitless! What is CNC? What exactly is Computer Numerical Control? Essentially, it’s when […]

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What a Difference a Year Makes…

Think back twelve months ago.  Most hardware companies were reeling from consecutive quarters of sub-par financial performance due to the significant — literally overnight — drop in demand caused by COVID.  Previously profitable, growing companies were slashing discretionary spending, completely restructuring, and implementing workforce furloughs and reductions.  Survival was paramount.  Those worst hit were often […]