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CNC Machining Applications & Benefits

CNC machining is a tried and trusted method of metal fabrication used for countless projects every day. Nearly anything that requires engineering or planned design most likely involves CNC machining in some way. All kinds of industries and businesses need quantities of large and small metal and plastic components that may become part of anything from automobiles to zoos.

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If you're reading this on a computer or handheld device, it probably contains something created by CNC machining. If you drive a car or have machines in the garage, they are likely to have components produced with CNC machining. The process started in the s and has since grown to encompass a multitude of metal fabrication applications.

There is much to gain from learning about the CNC machining process and how it can benefit your unique business application.

What Is CNC Machining?

CNC refers to computer-numerical control machining, and it automatically operates machine parts including lathes, routers, grinders, shapers, mills and more under the control of a computer instead of a human operator. Compared to manual operation, CNC machining reaches an exponentially faster and more precise level of production through multitasking. The process employs several axes at once to accomplish the jobs.

The computer controlling the machine is not your average desktop computer. CNC brains are located in a console and programmed with 'G-code' written especially for CNC machining. The code contains elements that enable control over feed rate, coordination, speed and position. The code also helps produce precise, consistent parts that end up as products or building blocks of products.

CNC machining involves exact, high-speed movements that enable expedited production, customization and several opportunities to gain benefits. CNC machining most often involves doing the jobs of lathes, routers, mills and grinders, and it encompasses bending, forming, turning, Swiss-style machining and other processes as well.

CNC Machine Advantages and Disadvantages

CNC machining prompts many gains and few losses. The advantages of CNC machining apply to companies offering the service and to the clients who seek them. This tends to generate some benefits. A few of these benefits include:

• Expedites any production order for those with quantities to produce and no time to spare.
• Produces precise and consistently matched parts, unlike manual production that naturally varies.
• Accepts design and specification information from compatible software programs.
• Work continuously to meet demanding deadlines and only need to stop for occasional service.
• Updates automatically for latest, most capable programming.
• Requires less labor to operate for greater overall project savings.
• Needs little maintenance except for new cutting implements occasionally.
• Gives broader capability than even the most skilled engineer and imaginative design since the machine can do things a human operator and manual machine could not do.
• Produces any shape, size or precise placement needed.
• Eliminates the challenges of manual machining, subject to staffing shortages, illness, vacation and other human factors.

There are a few disadvantages that may deter some businesses from choosing CNC machining:

• CNC machines cost more initially, so if you start a new company or you decide to get your own CNC equipment, you will have some upfront costs.
• Replaces manual operation, so some manual skills could become less developed or widespread overtime.

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CNC Machining Applications Are Countless

You can rely on CNC machining for an endless number of applications within a full range of materials such as aluminum, carbon and stainless steel, titanium, brass, castings, plastic, wood, gold, silver and synthetic materials including ABS, polycarbonate and others. The call might be for tons of tiny metal plates bent to a certain angle and engraved with a number, or for a large panel punched to order.

A business might need fittings, spacers, bushings, shafts, manifolds, dies, fixtures, molds and any number of other parts. A huge benefit of CNC machining is how it not only performs in all kinds of environments, it enhances the business's overall bottom line by doing the job faster and more cleanly than any other method.

Many essential metal fabrication tasks are made easier and faster with CNC machining:

• Boring
• Contouring
• Cutting
• Drilling
• Engraving
• Facing
• Grinding
• Grooving
• Knurling
• Lathing
• Milling
• Punching
• Shearing
• Shaping
• Stamping
• Tapping
• Texturing
• Threading
• Turning
• Welding

The full range of capabilities CNC machining delivers makes it possible to create just about anything part or tool a business needs.

CNC Applications Span Many Industries

All kinds of businesses need precisely machined parts with unfailing consistency. Countless industries use CNC machining for their metal fabrication needs, including:

Aerospace: Every industry needs precision, but it's especially important aircraft travel parts, such as an aircraft turbine engine, for example. Without precise parts, air travel for humans and goods could not be reliable and safe. Aerospace favors CNC machining because it offers the five-axis CNC machining needed, which can manage such hard-to-cut materials as Inconel.

Agriculture: From manufacturers of agriculture machines to large-scale farms and horticulture operations, CNC covers the needs of the agriculture industry. The operations demand high production and reliability, whether it's hardware on gates to secure the livestock, parts on a harvester or electronic components.

Automotive: Think of all the shafts, gears, pins, brackets and other parts that are used on vehicles of all sizes and styles. From specialized auto to military vehicles, CNC machining answers a call for the large and small parts that keep the production lines moving.

Construction: The tools and equipment used to construct things, as well as the materials used to build them, inherently involve CNC machining. It's a part of most building processes by nature of the wood, stone, nails, screws and other items used to create a structure. It might also be the answer to a desired architectural style, such as relief statues, or it could be needed for safety compliance or aid, such as with textured handrails.

Dental: Dental implants need machining to be just exactly the right shape. Besides the items that are surgically implanted, there are also the tools the doctors and assistants use. CNC machining puts just the right point, angle or bend on the business end of the instruments, as well as the texture on the handle that helps the professionals keep their grip.

Electronics: The brains inside most computers, the motherboards, have millions of tiny parts that must work with consistency and reliability every time. The intricate hardware of electronic items has rows of metal slats, panels, tiny wires, engraved numbers and other details that CNC machining serves well.

Electrical: An electrician's crew comes across dozens of things in a day that involve CNC machining, from cut coils and breaker panels to light fixtures and decorative items.

Food and Beverage: Each time we push the bar at a convenience-store soda fountain or eat in a restaurant, there was or is CNC machining involved in serving our needs. It's more than likely that every place that makes or serves food and beverages is intimately familiar with the technique and its capabilities.

Equipment: Light and heavy, big and small, all equipment alike involves CNC machining in one form or another. CNC machining might not be solely responsible for the creation of a huge earthmover, but it certainly it would be involved in many stages of its creation. The texture and size of fasteners, the shape of a crowbar, the gentle angles of a garden spade and its blade are all examples of tools and equipment CNC machining helps create.

Firearms: Weapons of all kinds may require CNC machining, but especially firearms. If you've ever seen a disassembled gun, you've seen the result of the CNC machining processes that created the pins, etched parts, barrels, plates, triggers, ammunition clips and other components of the firearm.

Jewelry: Imagine an engagement or wedding ring in its raw state as a chunk of silver or piece of titanium or gold. Professionals use CNC machining on multiple axes to cut a ring from those pieces. Another kind of CNC machining would be used to engrave the metal with '14-carat-gold' or another identifier. Jewelers also use small-scale CNC machining to make the personal inscriptions seen in and on jewelry.

Military: Broad needs for CNC machining exist within the military, where nameplates and defense implements might be on the same purchase order. The precision and uniformity produced by CNC machining fits so many aspects of the military's nature, from its mighty instruments of war to its rows of identical buttons.

Printing: Commercial and newspaper printing plants use CNC-machined parts throughout their facility. The Newspaper printing presses and the ad-insert machines that work every day to produce the periodicals people expect to see were all partially created by CNC machining.

Manufacturing: Anywhere people are making something on a production or assembly line, there is probably CNC machining involved at several or all points. Levers, plates and panels are just a few of the big and small parts that keep production facilities running smoothly.

Transportation: Nearly all modes of ground transport use CNC machining, including rail, over-the-road trucking, transit and others. From the large sheets that make up the bodies of vehicles to the tiny circuitry and other electronics involved in transportation, it takes an array of CNC machining to keep all these vehicles running.

CNC machining often creates a tool or element essential to the business' product or function. For examples, spray nozzles and valves, panels, plates and fasteners are universal to a majority of companies, yet they are potentially used uniquely within each one. CNC machining frequently, if not always, offers smart solutions.

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CNC Machining Has a Variety of Benefits

More applications of CNC machining work include multi-axis machining, where objects that would normally need to be cast are created from a solid piece of metal or other material. CNC processes routinely incorporate plasma and laser cutter technology, too.

Computer-aided design software produces a three-dimensional model of the final component, and the model can then be loaded into the system to program the machining and produce exact replicas. Once a template has been fed into the system, those same, exact replicas can be produced quickly and easily again and again.

Some mourn the loss of manual lathing and milling techniques, but these techniques are bound to persevere and even flourish outside the high-production environment. The growth of CNC machining, in fact, has led to the growth of new industries as well as educational courses geared toward CNC programmers and operators.

The field of programming or operating CNC machines has been a growing career path for as long as the craft has been around, but even more so with the dawn of the data age. It pays a decent wage, and good programmers and operators are always in high demand.

It's worth knowing how product quality is dependent on proficient CNC programming and operation. As you can imagine, if either one is off even a micro-fraction, it can cause problems. CNC machining providers should be scrutinized the same way any other commercial service vendor is, since the result of your product will be directly affected by the quality of a provider's operators, programmers and equipment.

While the industry and application may vary from business to business, CNC machining is a process that helps them all to do their jobs and accomplish efficient production.

Partner With Professionals

Summit Steel offers a full range of CNC machining services that touch many applications across dozens of industries. We offer a complete range of metal fabrication solutions, making us your one-stop shop for any metal contract manufacturing needs. You might also need turret punches, stamps, fabrication, bending or assembly, all of which we can accommodate.

We produce solutions using welders certified by ISO - and AWS. Summit Steel's CNC programmers and operators have deep knowledge and experience to share and apply to your project, and we invest in high-quality equipment.

Our welding division is outstanding, and robotic, computer-programmed capabilities enable us to offer the reliable and precise welds industry needs. We recognize the importance of high-quality welding, so we dedicate considerable time, energy and resources to stay abreast of the current and efficient technology, trends and regulations.

Our experience in the business spans 20 years, which we've used to refine our skills and sharpen our tools. It makes all the difference to team up with a company who focuses on short and efficient lead times, shipping and other logistics. An experienced CNC machining company can positively impact your quality, process and ultimately, your bottom line.

It is still possible to run an efficient machine shop without using comprehensive shop management software. During our travels around the country, we still encounter shops using paper job travelers and filing cabinets stuffed with job quotes, shipping documents, certifications, tool management archives, purchasing records and job schedules. The common thread for these shops, typically, is that they are small, family-owned business with stellar retention rates for employees who rarely take time off or get sick.

East Branch Engineering and Manufacturing in New Milford, Connecticut, used to fit this mold. Founded by Paul Guidotti in , the shop today has 20 multi-axis machines for milling and turning, run by 16 employees, including Mr. Guidotti's son, Chris, who joined the business in and today serves as vice president of manufacturing.

Chris Guidotti says that back in when the company had only 10 employees, he began noticing day-to-day problems that, taken together, were locking the company out of pulling in larger customers. While East Branch was using basic shop management software at the time, the system lacked several core capabilities. 'Blanket orders were an absolute nightmare to manage,' he says. Paper-based travelers were static and often not updated. Certifications were managed outside the system and had no direct tie-in with the software. The software's quality module was difficult to use, and there was no control of records or revision-control processes.

By , these problems had reached a tipping point. After conducting research into several software platforms, Mr. Guidotti and the team at East Branch implemented ProShop, a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) software system that promised to combine elements of manufacturing execution system capabilities with quality management system elements into a comprehensive platform. (ProShop points out that it also offers an on-premise option for customers who have concerns about cloud services.) Capabilities include software modules for tracking and managing work orders, material inventory, users, workholding and fixtures, work cells, certifications and audit reports, tooling, employee training and more. Paul Van Metre, co-founder and ProShop president, says that ultimately, the software is designed at its core to reduce tribal knowledge and 'democratize everything in the shop.'

'As the Baby Boomers retire, it's hard to find people to replace them,' he says. 'It's hard to hire minimally trained people and have them be successful. You need to provide them with a lot more information than just a paper traveler and some paper setup sheets that the programming department sent out. When it comes to shop management software, we feel like shopfloor users are just as valuable, if not more so, than the people in the front office.'

A recent encounter with a top customer at East Branch demonstrated to Chris Guidatti exactly what Mr. Van Metre meant.

Dual Sourced

Late last year, one of East Branch's largest customers set up a one-hour meeting with East Branch management to discuss a slew of changes that had taken place at the customer's business. The company had been bought out by an investment firm, and the new owners were drastically scaling back the approved vendor list. The company was dual sourced on many of its products, including the electronic housing components that East Branch produced via milling operations on its two Okuma machining centers.

'We did not want to lose these guys,' Mr. Guidotti says. 'This customer was a really big key to our growth. The parts we were making for them involved a lot of hogging out ' very unattended with long run times. For us, it was a way to really keep the machines running, and we made good profit because we didn't have a guy standing in front of the machine.'

Mr. Guidotti began the meeting with a tour of the facility. When it became apparent that the two company representatives were not familiar with general shopfloor operations, he decided to bring them right up to the Okuma mills that happened to be running their company's parts. Adjacent to each of the Okumas is a terminal that, via ProShop, has access to all of the information regarding those parts. (It is worth mentioning that Mr. Guidotti insists that nothing was planned regarding this tour. It was simply fortunate timing, he says, that the Okumas were running the company's parts during the representative's visit.)

While the tour group was standing in front of the machines, machine operators logged in and out of jobs on the machine terminals. They updated the work flow and added inspection data on the spot. 'The buyers had never seen that before,' Mr. Guidotti says. 'Usually, they toured shops that used paper systems, and the guys were writing stuff down on travelers that would get queued at the end of the day before being sent to somebody else who would enter data into the system. Here it was all live, in real time. And they were actually seeing it happen.'

After seeing the machines in action, the group made its way to one of East Brach's conference rooms to continue walking through its operations. Using ProShop, Mr. Guidotti outlined the steps and control processes his company had put in place for estimates, work orders, scheduling, time tracking, quality control, inspection, shipping and more. He showed the visual setup operations that each machinist can access, as well as the steps that are outlined in case a problem arises. Mr. Guidotti told the customer representatives that since the operators are responsible for documenting each machining operation and its outcome, any issues that arise, such as a scratch on the part, can be sourced to a particular time and place within the software. 'We were demonstrating this live,' Mr. Guidotti says. 'We didn't cherry pick this stuff. We picked one of the parts that was running at the time and said, 'Here's what we're doing with your parts.' They had never seen that before.'

The fact that the customer was dual sourced for this family of parts never left Mr. Guidotti's mind, he says. While he was demonstrating East Brach's processes, the customer mentioned that East Branch's competitor for these parts was using a paper-based system, and that this was causing issues in a few key areas. The customer also mentioned that its company was downsizing. So, there in the conference room, Mr. Guidotti loaded East Brach's contract record with the company and began editing the personnel list based on what the customers were telling him.

'And that did a few things for us,' Mr. Guidotti says. 'In front of them, in real time, we loaded their contract record. We ended up getting a handful of extra contacts at the customer. We got the new quality manager's name, and we got a couple of engineers' names. So not only did we show that we were willing to update things in real time and make sure the information was correct, but we got a little bit more information out of them.'

Compete on Process

As the meeting continued, it was becoming clear to Mr. Guidotti that the customer was not entirely satisfied with East Branch's competitor, specifically regarding flow-down requirements for certifications. The customer began volunteering information about these concerns, essentially stating that the competitor was often late when it came time to hand in the certifications and supplier Certificate of Conformance documents. So, Mr. Guidotti loaded the customer's work order and, in real time, provided a cert package to the customers for their parts. With a few clicks he pulled up the material cert, the approved print, and all of the AS forms. 'That made a huge impression on them,' Mr. Guidotti says.

What was his evidence for this statement?

The planned one-hour meeting ended up lasting three and a half hours. More importantly, after the meeting, the customer informed East Branch that it would now be the company's primary supplier. Its competitor would be the secondary supplier, only to be used when East Branch was overbooked.

'The number of orders we received doubled over the next 12 months,' Mr. Guidotti says. 'And not only did they double, but the quantities on the orders doubled as well. And probably one of the best things is they postponed their quality audit for 12 months. They wanted to come in and do a two-day quality audit of the system. So, we were able to continue operating without interruption for that 12 months.'

Generally speaking, the barrier to entry for opening and running a machine shop has dropped in recent years. For example, there are perfectly capable five-axis machines available on today's market for less than $120,000. As such, the number of start-up machine shops is on the rise ' a fact that changes the nature of competition in this space. For Mr. Guidotti and East Branch Engineering, this meant that the ability to showcase tightly controlled processes ' processes that were accessible and integral to the entire production chain for its customers ' was tantamount to a competitive advantage for its business.

'When you're dual-sourced on a part,' he says, 'your competitor has the same capability as you do. People can make the parts you're making. So, what are you competing on? You're competing on everything you do to get inside your company's processes. That's what you compete on. And we demonstrated that we're good at what we do.'

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