We pride ourselves on being the precision machine shop customers can turn to for their most complex parts, consistently achieving tight tolerance requirements and mastering challenging features and materials that other shops don’t want anything to do with.
Our appetite for complexity even extends to parts that are considered difficult from a supply chain perspective: parts with complex features that also require complex outside processes like metal finishing.
We have a proven approach to project managing these processes, and it works wonders for everyone involved—from the metal finishers plating the machined parts we send their way to our customers who receive the final parts made to their most precise specifications.
Why Shops No-Quote Parts with Complex Outside Processes
If you’ve had difficulty finding precision machine shops that will quote complex parts requiring complex outside processes, it’s because the stakes are high on these jobs. Most shops aren’t willing to assume that much risk.
Machining a part with intricate features and tight tolerances is challenging enough. Getting that part plated accurately without compromising those intricate features and tight tolerances is—at best—a massive headache and—at worst—a costly nightmare. Shops have very little control over what goes on at a plating house, and the consequences can be dire.
Consider this: if a plating house scraps a part in the anodizing tank, they’ll credit the machine shop that sent them the part a mere $80 lot charge for what could be a $20,000 part. That’s a major loss that most shops aren’t willing to gamble on. Even if the plating house doesn’t scrap the part, there’s no guarantee they’ll mask all the right holes or adequately accommodate for critical features and surfaces.
None of this is necessarily the plater’s fault. They’re excellent at what they do. They just don’t have the same in-depth understanding of tolerances, features, and surfaces as machinists. So we developed a set of best practices to set them (and us. . . and our customers) up for success.
How We Project Manage Your Precision Machined Parts
At Focused on Machining, we’re willing to take on the risk of sending complex parts out for complex outside processes because we’ve put in the work to feel confident that we’ll get the parts right.
In fact, our commitment to machining port parts that other precision machine shops regularly no-quote is what inspired us to develop a better approach to facilitating outside processes. Port surfaces are critical, and it’s important to have them masked well during plating so that they’re not exposed to the treatment.
Here are the best practices we employ to manage complex outside processes.
Tiered supply chain
We’ve built a robust network of trusted plating vendors—locally and nationally—and are continuously looking to add excellent new vendors to our list.
But that’s not all. We’ve divided our plating vendors into three tiers, grouping them according to whether we send them our simplest or most complex parts.
The tier three vendors are fast, inexpensive and fully capable of plating a straightforward part in a matter of hours. The tier one vendors are by no means the cheapest or fastest, but we’ve learned from experience that they’re the only ones we can trust with tight tolerances and intricate features. The tier two vendors sit somewhere in the middle.
For each project, we’re committed to matching the part to the right plating vendor.
Customer communication
Engineers are under such pressure to design properly functioning parts that they can fall into the trap of overengineering.
They might design their tolerances unnecessarily tight, make their features overly complex, or even ask for a hard anodized finish when regular anodizing is sufficient. They may also provide questionable masking instructions on their print.
We analyze our customers’ prints before doing any work on their parts and communicate with them proactively to discuss potential issues so that we can deliver a high-quality part at the best price. These conversations are especially critical for parts requiring complex outside processes.
Simple plating instructions
This best practice is perhaps the most effective one of all: we make the plating instructions as simple as possible for the vendor.
Typically, engineers call out plating instructions in the notes section of a print. The problem is that their instructions usually include minimal information and terms the plater may not fully understand. For example, the instructions might say, “Mask all ports.” But if the plater can’t distinguish between a port and a different feature, that’s not very helpful.
At Focused on Machining, we take what is often a complex multi-page print and create our own separate print just for plating. We simplify the information significantly, even color-coding our print for easy interpretation.
Platers appreciate that we set them up for success, and our customers love that they get the complex machined parts they want. It’s a win-win.
The next time you need a complex part requiring complex outside processes, you can trust Focused on Machining to deliver. Request a quote today.