Down to the basics of custom manufacturing

Just got back from the Java Meet-Up (#JMU612 for all those following on Twitter...) and I am pumped about social media again. Not because I want to bombard followers with gimmicky sales stuff, or to push our company at them - no, just because it's such a great way to let people know what it is that we can do here, and if they are ever in need of the services, they'll know where to go.

I've never been the type of person to push or hard sell anything, so to me, just putting information out there for people to have is essential for everyone to really understand your business and learn to trust you as a company. A wise person once said,

"Ethics or simple honesty is the building blocks upon which our whole society is based, and business is a part of our society, and it's integral to the practice of being able to conduct business, that you have a set of honest standards. And it's much easier to do business with someone when you look them in the eye and say, "This is what we're going to do," and you understand what you each mean, and you can go away and get it done."

(Kerry Stokes)

I love it. Anyways, moving on to business in action... let's move forward.

Sarah's Super Sweet Pick of the Week

I love this part because of all the detail behind it. Now you're thinking to yourself, that looks like an average part that I might see every other day... but have you ever thought about what work goes behind it? Well wonder no more. Here we go.

The part started out as 6061 aluminum bar stock that was turned in our CNC lathe. From here, the parts went to our secondary operations department where we put in the cross holes, flats, and off-center hole on the CNC mill. The process will be cut shorter in a week or two when we install our new multi-axis lathe with a twin spindle (mill turn center) which will allow us to make parts like this all in one shot which will in addition make for shorter lead times. And customers really seem to like those.

The end product itself is used for housing another part (piston) that we also produced in-house. They go together as an assembly to control the sand flow on waterjet machinery (right up our alley!) and works to turn abrasive flow on and off.


And now as usual, we advance to the...

Questions of the Week...

Q) What's the best way to cut thick aluminum sheets?
A) Waterjet cutting. Waterjet cuts up to 12" thick material, and so depending on how thick you are aiming to go, waterjet is your best source to do so.

Q) Can Monel be laser cut?
A) Short answer is, no. Steel alloys are best suited for waterjet cutting (abrasive and non-abrasive) as they are very hard metals.

Q) What is the complete laser manufacturing process of gaskets?
A) Well if you must use laser cutting for your gaskets, then I'm assuming you're using aluminum or thin steel. Either way, you're going to start with drawing up your print (CAD or DXF, DWG files are good) and send them over to us. We get a pricing on material, the process used, and labor and send it out to you. Once you confirm that you're ready to go, we put the project into production with whatever steps necessary. Since almost all our machinery is CNC compatible, your drawings go straight to the production floor and get used to produce your parts. When the process is complete, we clean up the parts (remove any extra abrasive) and send them through our shipping department to get back to the customer. It's a pretty simple process and usually pretty quick as well. If you're not sure on whether you should use laser cutting or waterjet cutting, compare the two of them here...

Q) I'd like to get some custom letters cut. Could Fedtech do this?
A) We love signage projects. In fact, you can visit here to see a bunch that we've done in the past. Typically we waterjet or laser cut your signs from copper, brass, aluminum, plastic, stainless steel... etc.

Q) How thick can a laser cut? (This question was asked four times so it must need to be addressed)
A) Laser cuts aluminum up to 1/8" thick and stainless steel and carbon steel up to 5/8" thick.

Q) What is the best aluminum material for laser cutting?
A) This is a great question. Most aluminums cut the same on the laser, we haven't seen a difference in results with the different types of aluminum that has been laser cut.



Well that's all for this week! Thanks for checking in. Check back again soon :)

Sarah