If your company is currently developing a product that has several components that fit or join together to make a complete product, and you want to make it easy and simple to assemble, you may want to outsource this task to a machining industry. The various tools and processes used by machinists are perfect for any kind of project or product that requires assembly, either in the factory or at home by consumers. Machining can do all of the following tasks, which will make assembly of your product easier.
Drilling
Drilling is the technique whereby a drill puts holes in metal, plastic, or wood components. If your products need several holes made specifically for the joining together of parts (via wooden peg, bolt or screw), then a machinist can use drilling to put the pre-drilled holes or openings in certain pieces of your product. A related process, boring, can enlarge the holes created by drilling when the holes made are not quite the right diameter and re-drilling is not an option.
Turning (or Lathing)
Turning (or lathing) is probably the process most commonly associated with machining. If your products have sculpted edges or ridges, such as spindles on a chair, then turning is the process that will create the precision cutwork on the product's shaped components. You can request this type of process on any material, not just wood or metal. Plastic tubing can also be sculpted and cut with turning.
Reaming
Reaming is similar to boring in that it removes more material from a pre-drilled hole. However, reaming is very precise, and is reserved for those times when the holes needed on a product are metric in nature and have to be so perfectly-shaped that boring is not enough to enlarge the opening accurately. Reaming may also be reserved just for enlarging holes in metal because the hole may have some rough surfaces or edges that the reaming can smooth and prepare for bolts.
Milling
Milling is, in essence, planing with an electrically-powered device to produce a smooth flat surface, something that would otherwise be achieved by a manual planing tool. However, since you are in the midst of mass production of the parts of a product, you want things to be more precise and to move along a lot faster than they would if a carpenter hand-planed every board or material surface. If you need two flat surfaces to meet and seal together perfectly, then milling may be part of the services you request from the machinist to create some of the parts of your product. Contact a company like Tri-State Fabricators Inc for more information.
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