While Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) design their own custom parts for a product, they can be manufactured in-house or manufactured to specifications by a contracted supplier. This is especially true for precision CNC machined parts.
Today, we’re taking a look at why it makes sense to consider outsourcing your complex CNC machined components.
RELATED: 4 Challenging CNC Parts for Industrial Applications
Most manufacturing facilities, even those for global brands, rely heavily on dedicated CNC shops to produce many of their OEM parts for a reason.
To produce machined parts in-house at scale is a costly endeavor that requires dedicated production floor space, complex tooling, fixtures, equipment, quality control protocols, and skilled labor. It’s not only a significant investment of time, space, and money; it’s also difficult to produce parts in high enough volumes to keep up with production lines.
Bulky, complex equipment and the right workforce aren’t the only requirements. Dedicated CNC facilities also have established relationships with vendors to design custom tooling for each project. Additionally, they’ve formed partnerships with foundries to produce the raw materials and initial castings that need to be machined to the proper specifications.
Speed-to-market is another reason to work with a custom CNC facility. Their only focus is on producing custom CNC parts, so they’ve developed robust processes to streamline production. And, their skilled workforce and engineering teams know how to tackle highly complex projects with ease, speeding up production without compromising quality.
A manufacturer of recreational electric vehicles (EV) designed and machined their gearbox cases and covers in-house. While they could get the job done, the manufacturer wasn’t equipped to produce the parts at high volumes due to the tight tolerances and other limitations.
The company sought the help of Stecker Machine, a dedicated CNC machining shop, with the goal of not only producing the gearbox cases at scale but with exacting precision. Any deviation from the specifications would result in excess noise during acceleration and deceleration due to axial displacement.
Stecker conducted a formal Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) study and collaborated with the manufacturer’s engineers. Together, they determined that the original drawings needed to be adjusted to ensure the final machined parts could be produced at scale and consistently to specifications so they performed as expected.
Adding to the challenge was the stress and torque that the final part would be subjected to in operation, requiring high-quality materials and assembly. The gearbox also had to have perfectly aligned seals to ensure it remained pressure-tight and didn’t experience a catastrophic failure.
With its newer and better cast features, the final gearbox case and cover were of higher quality than the original design. Not only was it easier to machine, but the updated design and production processes marrying cast tabs, fixtures, and datum schemes made the process more repeatable.
As a result, Stecker’s team met the tight 4-month deadline so the OEM could ramp up production, all at considerable cost savings for the manufacturer.
This type of collaborative approach and innovative thinking is at the heart of Stecker’s vision, mission, and culture. If you’re an OEM looking for a custom CNC partner to alleviate bottlenecks, improve speed to market, and deliver the highest quality CNC machined parts possible, contact our team. We are here to help you — from working through your request for quote to receiving your successfully machined production parts.