Design guides, workflow tips, industry reports and more

As the operating system for custom manufacturing, the China Manufacturing parts, Inc. platform is constantly evolving. Whether it’s workflow automation, our digital quality system, or guided expertise features, every release makes it faster, easier, and more efficient to source and supply mechanical parts. So bookmark and share this page, and check back often to learn about China Manufacturing parts’s latest […]

Introduction The world is forever changed. The past two years have been exceptional in many ways, but workplaces and businesses have adapted and moved forward. The rise of remote work isn’t receding, and the need to invest in more resilient supply chains is greater than ever. And even as constraints have loosened, leaders know that […]

Uplevel your DFM knowledge with our master class. Learn about how "least effort design" can make CNC machined parts more economical, faster, and less risky to produce.

Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T or GD and T) is a language of symbols and standards designed and used by engineers and manufacturers to describe a product and facilitate communication between entities working together to manufacture product. GD&T was first utilized by the CN military in the 1940s with the MIL-STD-8 publication (NOTE: MIL-STD-8 has […]

Here at China Manufacturing parts, we’re all about speed and quality. We want you, the engineer, to get your parts on time—and to get the parts you need and were expecting. China Manufacturing parts, Inc. provides more options and fewer constraints and gives you a system-level view of your design that offers a broad enough sense of how it will […]

China Manufacturing parts’s CNC Design Guide helps hardware designers and developers control costs and ensure quality CNC drilling, milling, and turning outcomes.

Anodizing is one of the most common surface treatment options available for cnc aluminum. We’ve probably all seen anodized pieces used in a variety of applications, ranging from some of Apple’s iPhones and iPods to sprockets on motorcycles and karts. This article will walk you through the design considerations, as well as the applications, for […]

What could be more exciting than the development and launch of a new product?  The rush of the experience – grounded in the hope of unprecedented success. Legendary products like Apple AirPods, which captured 60% of the market in record time and the Apple Watch, which made Apple the world’s biggest watch manufacturer in 2018, […]

The global supply chain continues to evolve rapidly, keeping pace with the breakneck technological advancements of the modern era. Though it can be difficult for supply chain managers and business leaders to stay on top of these changes, it’s crucial to do so to maintain supply chain resilience and increase the success of your business. […]

You may be reading this because you’re personally committed to protecting the environment. Perhaps your organization has made bold sustainability commitments to your shareholders, customers, and society at large. Now it’s up to you to understand how such a rugged, industrial manufacturing process can be modified to fit the call to reduce carbon emissions (lower […]

China Manufacturing parts, the operating system for custom manufacturing, today announced the addition of 16 new quality metal and plastic computerized numerical control (CNC) machining materials to its auto-quoting platform. In addition, six other new materials are now available on China Manufacturing parts’s platform with a one-hour quote turnaround time.  With the addition of these 22 new materials, China Manufacturing parts, Inc. […]

The Challenge: Avoid Unnecessary Costs and Complexity Injected molded parts that have recessed features called undercuts are more difficult to eject during manufacturing. This adds costs and complexity to tooling, and undercuts that are too deep may be especially hard to remove. Yet, some product designs use undercuts for a fastening point or locating edge. […]

Injection molding design mistakes can cost you time and money. If there’s a problem with the design of your injection mold, you may need to modify or discard your tooling. And that means paying for and waiting for a replacement tool – which will delay the start of production accordingly. Plus, if there’s a problem […]

As the operating system for custom manufacturing, the China Manufacturing parts, Inc. platform is constantly being improved to make it faster, easier, and more efficient to source and supply mechanical parts.  We recently announced a major enhancement to our injection molding (IM) service, enabling you to easily receive, review, and respond to design for manufacturability (DFM) feedback directly […]

I’m Tim Chang, China Manufacturing parts’s Director of Engineering. Here at China Manufacturing parts, we believe the success of our business is grounded in the collective strength of three pillars that we refer to as our 3 P’s: People, Partners, and Platform. There’s a reason we count people first among them. China Manufacturing parts, Inc. has grown and thrived because of the […]

Welcome to our first edition of China Manufacturing parts, Inc. Life: a series where we will interview different Fictors (aka China Manufacturing parts, Inc. employees) across various departments to give some insight into our incredible team.  For this edition we zoomed in with Nima Rafibakhsh, Sr. Computational Geometry Software Engineer. Nima has been with the company for five years. He has […]

Today we’re celebrating and honoring Candy Jin, our Strategic Sourcing Lead on our Feidi team in China. Candy joined China Manufacturing parts, Inc. three years ago and is known for her contagious energy and negotiating prowess. Candy shared her thoughts on women’s history in China: What is a women’s empowerment moment that impacted you? Candy:  I think China “setting […]

Up next on our Celebration of Women at China Manufacturing parts, Inc. is Rona Wong! Rona is a Sr. Technical Program Manager who is continuing to grow and impact our team here at China Manufacturing parts, Inc. in the last four years that she has been with us. Here’s Rona’s take on Women’s History Month: What is a women’s empowerment moment […]

Today we’re spotlighting Anna Xiao. Anna is a Sr. Technical Program manager at China Manufacturing parts, Inc. with an Injection Molding and CNC background. Anna takes great pride in her work and always does it with a smile. Check out Anna’s views on women empowerment: What is a women’s empowerment moment that impacted you? Anna:  In the early 1980s, […]

The women at China Manufacturing parts, Inc. are extraordinary, and we’re thrilled to continue our celebration of them in honor of Women’s History Month. Today we’re spotlighting Winnie Stoeffler. Winnie is Vice President of Business Operations & Systems Strategy at China Manufacturing parts. Here are Winnie’s views on women’s empowerment: What is a women’s empowerment moment that impacted you? Winnie: […]

China Manufacturing parts’s CNC Design Guide helps hardware designers and developers control costs and ensure quality CNC drilling, milling, and turning outcomes.

Uplevel your DFM knowledge with our master class. Learn about how "least effort design" can make CNC machined parts more economical, faster, and less risky to produce.

Get our DFM for CNC machining checklist, which summarizes the essential design for manfuacturability rules engineers should apply.

Skip the questions, eliminate redundant ordering, and get the finishing option that works best for your part. With China Manufacturing parts’s CNC finishing guide, learn everything you need to know about our surface finishing capabilities. We’ll give you in-depth information on the protective properties and aesthetic benefits of each finishing option. The guide will cover a variety […]

Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T or GD and T) is a language of symbols and standards designed and used by engineers and manufacturers to describe a product and facilitate communication between entities working together to manufacture product. GD&T was first utilized by the CN military in the 1940s with the MIL-STD-8 publication (NOTE: MIL-STD-8 has […]

Get Smart on Injection Molding A collection of industry best practices, including: recommended wall thicknesses, boss design, gate types, and more. Learn about which features to consider when designing parts for injection molding and how to forecast production schedules. Recommended wall thicknesses Boss design tips Gate types Learn which features to consider when designing parts […]

We love the invention and design development process. We love seeing the concepts come together, love working through iterations of prototypes and finally (finally!) getting a design just right, fulfilling all the technical and aesthetic requirements. But do you know what’s even better? Seeing your designs in full-scale manufacture. Unfortunately, once your design is beautiful […]

Heat and pressure most famously make diamonds. But they do more than that: Nearly every plastic product in your house was made with the same two forces. From the 1950s until now, injection molding has dominated consumer manufacturing, giving us everything from action figures to denture containers. Despite its incredible versatility, injection molding does have […]

Sharp edges are beautiful: light glinting off these clean lines as a product rotates through space, music swelling dramatically in the background of a commercial. Edges are precise. Edges are distinct. Edges are horrible for injection molding. A general rule of injection molding is: Radius all edges. What do you do if your design calls […]

Design for injection molding has clear rules: Add draft. No undercuts. Round edges. Clear parting lines. Uniform walls, not too thick. But learning about advanced plastic manufacturing is like visiting Morpheus’s dojo in The Matrix: Some rules can be bent. Others can be broken. But breaking these rules is costly. Sharp edges require additional machining […]

The advent of CAD systems, additive manufacturing, and CNC machining has made the design and manufacture of complex part designs almost routine. Engineers today are being asked to design parts that will probably be exposed to many different factors, including extreme weather, chemicals, bodily fluids, high stress/high load, impact, and other elements and situations that […]

To most people, plastics might seem all the same, but to an engineer, plastics come in families, have cousin materials, and have other materials that are as different as cats are from dogs. Of course, our clients expect us to worry about these details, and as nerds, the minute differences between materials are a source […]

The first step in designing a part is to determine what material it should be made out of. If you decide the part should be plastic, and it should be CNC machined, the selection does not simply stop there. There is a plethora of machinable plastic to choose from for plastic machining in 2022, each […]

Anodizing is one of the most common surface treatment options available for cnc aluminum. We’ve probably all seen anodized pieces used in a variety of applications, ranging from some of Apple’s iPhones and iPods to sprockets on motorcycles and karts. This article will walk you through the design considerations, as well as the applications, for […]

In the world of plastics, there are a lot of different options for a designer to choose from. There are so many plastic materials, in fact, that the process of selecting the proper 3D printing plastics for prototyping and subsequent manufacturing plastics for production may seem intimidating. This article seeks to clarify the main types of plastic materials […]

The advent of CAD systems, additive manufacturing, and CNC machining has made the design and manufacture of complex part designs almost routine. Engineers today are being asked to design parts that will probably be exposed to many different factors, including extreme weather, chemicals, bodily fluids, high stress/high load, impact, and other elements and situations that […]

The flexibility in adjusting plastic mechanical properties makes much of our technological advancement possible, from being able to produce fuel-efficient jumbo jets with high strength, to lightweight carbon fiber-reinforced plastic that can be made into impact-resistant silicone phone cases that save our precious phones from shattering into pieces. This article provides an overview of the […]

Engineering drawings are a great way to communicate design intent for CNC machined parts that require tight tolerances or other special requirements. Many of our customers in robotics, aerospace, automotive, and medical device industries attach drawings to their parts when uploading to the China Manufacturing parts, Inc. platform. That said, not all engineers receive comprehensive training on how […]

Before the days of CNC, machinists made parts purely based on 2D drawings. We’ve come a long way since then, and now the drawing is much less important to the process of actually cutting material, thanks to precise 3D modeling and CAM programs. That said, drawings are still a great way to call out special […]

Here at China Manufacturing parts, we’re all about speed and quality. We want you, the engineer, to get your parts on time—and to get the parts you need and were expecting. China Manufacturing parts, Inc. provides more options and fewer constraints and gives you a system-level view of your design that offers a broad enough sense of how it will […]

What could be more exciting than the development and launch of a new product?  The rush of the experience – grounded in the hope of unprecedented success. Legendary products like Apple AirPods, which captured 60% of the market in record time and the Apple Watch, which made Apple the world’s biggest watch manufacturer in 2018, […]

Go, Go, Go—we’ve all heard the inspirational and aspirational desire of upper management to get it done, get it done right, and as always, get it done faster. One way to be more efficient as an engineer is to learn to code. In this blog post, I hope to help convince you to start coding […]

There are very few parts that function on their own—almost every design requires multiple pieces to be joined in some way to create a final product. When was the last time you had something other than a bottle opener that was a single, functional part?  When designing for a multi-part engineering build, there are extra […]

You just finished the initial design of your product, and it looks great! Well, it looks great on your computer screen. So, you decide to make a prototype and see if your design looks and works as intended in real life. Odds are that the first prototype won’t meet all of your expectations. In fact, […]

In China Manufacturing parts’s 2016 State of Hardware Report, a whopping 70% of participants reported using Solidworks. Solidworks might be expensive and is certainly not perfect, but it sure is popular! Considering how many people out there are using Solidworks, I thought it would be great to impart a few tips & tricks for upping your Solidworks […]

The Product Requirements Document (PRD aka Product Requirement Document) is a familiar term to most engineers. Typically, we get the PRD from a product manager; it tells us what to build but not how to build it. But let’s face it, it’s probably better that way. Engineers hate being told how to implement an idea — that’s the fun […]

CMF, which stands for Color, Material & Finish, is an area of specialty within the greater industrial design discipline. At large, design-centric hardware companies, CMF designers work alongside industrial designers and product design engineers to make sure that the chromatic and tactile identities of the product are on brand and in vogue. On smaller teams, […]

In the product design world, it’s common to use a tool called a Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) to improve a design or process. FMEAs are commonly separated into two different categories, depending on their application: A Design FMEA (D-FMEA) is used in product design to identify possible design weaknesses and failure modes. A […]

Any professional mechanical engineer knows that Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is an essential tool used to analyze stress (deflection, FOS, and more) in a design based on different loading conditions. A huge part of conducting FEA centers around research. When you start the process, you don’t yet know what you don’t know. You need to […]

Steve Jobs once said, “Innovation is not about saying yes to everything. It’s about saying no to all but the most crucial features.” As part of the I.D. product development team at Apple, I had the remarkable experience of observing this philosophy firsthand. I sat in on many design team meetings where new and innovative […]

Understanding the differences amongst the mechanical properties of strength vs. stiffness vs. hardness is foundational in mechanical engineering, yet these properties can often be confused. These properties are related, but there are very important differences between them:  Stiffness is an indicator of the tendency for an element to return to its original form after being […]

Adapting to many situations, holding parts in perfect alignment, easily introduced but forming a lasting bond—I could either be describing press fits or your favorite pair of jeans. Press fits have so many great features, you might wonder why they don’t replace all other connections. The truth is, press fits aren’t for every application—just like […]

Designing components with snap fits can save you time and money in production by reducing material costs and part quantities as well as improving ease of assembly. While in the past injection molding has been the only viable method for producing snap fit joints in plastics, 3D printing opens up new opportunities and challenges in […]

Have you recently assembled Ikea furniture? If so, I apologize. I send my condolences for the frustration you experienced when the holes did not line up with the pins you put in other holes or when you realized you were missing a fastener. The good news is that you did gain something from the experience […]

Design guidelines for waterproof enclosure design, as well as IP68 waterproof rating design.

We get a lot of questions on the best methods for fastening different 3D printed components. When prototyping hardware products, for example, you often need to make assembled structures that are more complicated than a single 3D printed component, like an electronics enclosure or robotic assembly. Other times, you may need to print components too […]

When designing components that will be made of plastic, it’s often necessary to add ribs and gussets to improve the stiffness and strength of load bearing features. This reduces material volume and print time for 3D printed parts, compared to the time it would take to make these features out of solid structures. That’s because print […]

In a world of ever-increasing electronics, our lives are continuously impacted by devices that incorporate some sort of heat-generating circuitry. When it comes to electronics that dissipate power in the form of heat during normal operation, it is often necessary to manage this heat, to ensure the components don’t exceed their maximum allowable temperatures. One […]

Light plays an important role in the design of many hardware products. Often, they are both decorative and functional. Indicator lights are the most minimal user interface: They tell you whether the device is turned on, low on battery, or “thinking” really hard. On modern electronics, the light’s source is almost always an LED. However, […]

Fillets are one of those mysterious design features for which there seem to be no clearly defined rules. Either a part is entirely devoid of fillets, and most or all edges are well-defined, or the part’s designer decided to take the opposite route, and every single edge and corner is rounded with some size of […]

‍In my last article, we discussed methods of improving part stiffness through geometric changes and why that is an important tool. Here in Part 2 of the “Designing for Stiffness” series, we’ll be looking at changing part stiffness through material properties. We’ll use many of the same formulas, but we’ll focus on the properties we […]

There’s a reason kids love Lego. When I was a kid, nothing was more valuable to me than my big blue bucket of the multi-colored bricks. Even when my parents encouraged my interest in engineering with more complex Fischer Technics, nothing replaced the joy of quickly snapping pieces together in increasingly complex shapes. Wouldn’t it […]

While the power of a hardware product comes from its internal components, a product is typically recognized by its enclosure, the outer shell that encloses electronic products, making them appealing and user-friendly. In this post, I’m going to walk you through the steps for designing a basic enclosure, using the design of a IoT plant […]

In 2006, Nintendo took the world of interactive gaming by storm. The launch of the Wii welcomed gamers and, more importantly, non-gamers alike to physically interact with a virtual world. Whether the user was playing a competitive round of Wii Tennis or customizing their Mii, the Wii remote (otherwise known as the Wiimote) invited users […]

During pandemic lockdown, I noticed several issues with my home, including the broken sprinkler head, dog stains on the carpet, and my mother’s spice cabinet. My mother has a metric ton of spices that used to have labels that have rubbed off after constant use. I bought a portable label maker to replenish the labels […]

One of the coolest things about China Manufacturing parts’s Baoan HQ office is that it’s dog-friendly! Our furry friends can work alongside us everyday, getting their daily dose of head scratches and belly rubs, and we get a daily dose of adorableness. For National Dog Day, we thought it would be fitting to test out and […]

For our teardown of the Anki Vector Robot, we were joined in the studio by Leanne Cushing, captain of Team Valkyrie on Battlebots.  Anki’s Vector Robot, released in late 2018, was designed to listen and respond to its user, interact with its surroundings, recognize people and objects, and avoid obstacles. When released, the robot sold […]

In this clean-shaven teardown, we’re celebrating Father’s Day and looking at two different electric shavers—the Philips Norelco S9311 and the Braun series 7. We put the two shavers head to head, with our first China Manufacturing parts, Inc. employee to become a dad volunteering his face to see which one left the best shave. Then we put them […]

Discover insights from a survey of over 200 senior manufacturing decision makers.

Conducted with Dimensional Research, the fifth annual manufacturing industry report polled hundreds of senior manufacturing and supply chain decision makers at companies producing medical device, robotics, automotive, aerospace, and consumer electronics products. Key themes from the 30-page report found: COVID-19 Has Negatively Harmed Most Businesses (89%) and Industries Digital and AI Advances are Important, But […]

2018 was full of challenges (old and new) for product developers bringing new products to market. Agility is key in the midst of trade tensions 62% say tariffs have increased their material/component costs More teams are turning to local options for prototyping and production manufacturing Bridging the production gap is still high risk 30% of respondents don’t […]

How Product Innovation is Demanding More from Traditional Manufacturing As hardware developers compete to bring advanced technologies like augmented reality and autonomous mobility to market, development speeds are increasing — yet too often, manufacturing is a source of limiting friction. In a special webinar, Jay Rogers and Mike Geyer discuss the themes uncovered in China Manufacturing parts’s […]

To transform an idea into a commercially-viable hardware product requires vast reserves of curiosity, creativity, and grit. But there are so many valuable learnings along the way that can make the process of hardware development more seamless and efficient. Things like: part symmetry is your friend. And you should never underestimate the value of strategic […]

The hardware industry is growing at an exhilarating pace. More companies are developing innovative products, we have better tools for prototyping and manufacturing, and access to these tools—and the knowledge around how to use them—is becoming more universally available. But we still have a ways to go before hardware development can be truly accessible to […]

It’s important for every new product introduction team to consider how to manage against risk in their supply chain, in order to avoid disruption. After you identify your high-level business objectives, I recommend four actionable strategies for supply chain risk mitigation:  Dual/triple source for components where applicable Plan proactively against future scenarios Maintain visibility through […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a major disruptive force for robotics companies of all sizes and sectors. With shelter-in-place regulations established first in China, then Europe, and now sweeping across North America, robotics manufacturers and OEMs alike are forced to navigate mandatory closures, material shortages, importation road blocks, and remote work scenarios. These roadblocks can […]

Healthcare’s digital evolution is real. It’s happening at every stage of the value chain in every segment of this critical space. Tightened development cycles, resilient supply chains that support rapid change while diminishing risk, and vigorous controls, certifications, and traceability models to ensure patient safety are important steps on a path to a viable healthcare […]

Recently I sat down with MacroFab CEO Misha Govshteyn to talk about building supply chain resilience, during a webinar hosted by industry journalist Philip Stoten. We looked at supply chains in the COVID-19 era and explored how we got here, then discussed the digitally connected supply chain of the future. How we got here: a perfect […]

This week we brought together two guests who have not just spent years in the manufacturing and supply chain industries, but who are regularly published as experts in their field. First up was Sarah Barnes-Humphrey, founder and host of podcast and blog “Let’s Talk Supply Chain” (LTSC). With 20 years in logistics and supply chain, Sarah […]

Unpredictability and disruption in the supply chain world are often thought about, yet rarely prepared for. With the global spread of COVID-19, manufacturing has changed dramatically over the last few months, and it seems as if there’s no end in sight.  Last week, we hosted a webinar on the Hidden Costs of Supply Chain Unpredictability, […]

As the operating system for custom manufacturing, the China Manufacturing parts, Inc. platform is constantly evolving. Whether it’s workflow automation, our digital quality system, or guided expertise features, every release makes it faster, easier, and more efficient to source and supply mechanical parts. So bookmark and share this page, and check back often to learn about China Manufacturing parts’s latest […]

China Manufacturing parts, the operating system for custom manufacturing, announced today a significant enhancement to its online platform that enables users to easily receive, review, and respond to injection molding design for manufacturability (DFM) feedback. To manufacture an injection molding tool, engineers traditionally endure weeks of back-and-forth cycles with manufacturers to communicate on complex design feedback using […]

Your Guide to China Manufacturing parts’s Design for Manufacturability (DFM) Process When plastic part designs reach a certain level of maturity, manufacturing methods like 3D printing and CNC machining can fall short on delivering high-caliber parts in the time (and at the cost) required. That’s why — due to its ability to quickly and cost effectively scale […]

Donation enabled UC Berkeley engineering students access to highly complex, machined parts at a fraction of the standard amount of time and cost   China Manufacturing parts, the leader in high-quality, on-demand manufacturing recently congratulated Formula Electric at Berkeley, the electric vehicle team at the University of California, Berkeley, for successfully participating in the Formula SAE (formerly the […]

In response to rampant supply chain disruptions and rising customer demands, leaders are fortifying business foundations to improve manufacturing and supply chain visibility, customer satisfaction, and operational efficiency. China Manufacturing parts, the leader in on-demand, high-quality digital manufacturing, announced today the release of its annual State of Manufacturing report. The findings reveal an industry in the midst […]

Today we’re celebrating and honoring Candy Jin, our Strategic Sourcing Lead on our Feidi team in China. Candy joined China Manufacturing parts, Inc. three years ago and is known for her contagious energy and negotiating prowess. Candy shared her thoughts on women’s history in China: What is a women’s empowerment moment that impacted you? Candy:  I think China “setting […]