How to Cut Costs on Your CNC Machine Parts
Cutting costs is the ultimate goal for every business. The lower the operating costs, the more profits the industry enjoys.
For your manufacturing industry, CNC machining is one of the areas that cost you a fortune. Not only to purchase the machines, but also during their operations.
When poorly handled, the CNC machines incur more costs than any other process in the industry –and result in managers asking, “How can we cut down these costs?”
Below, we’ve highlighted five ways to help you reduce these costs.
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Choose the right materials
The type of materials machined plays a crucial role in determining the costs incurred during machining. While a material may be cheap, it may not necessarily be easy to machine.
The vice versa is also true. So, instead of opting for the cheapest raw materials, look for the durable yet easily machinable materials.
Generally, soft materials are easier to machine than their hard counterparts. They require fewer tools to machine and thus reduce costs.
Moreover, materials with ‘hazardous tendencies require extra attention and hence add up the costs.
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Minimize your setup time
Besides the materials, your machine setup time also chips in the increased costs.
The process of machine setup is often complex, lengthy and involves manual labor. This means that a lot of resources are wasted on the process.
And worse, different CNC machine parts take different spans to set up, eliminating a ‘one-for-all’ solution for this. However, you can still reduce this time spent.
Choosing soft, machinable materials is one way and, changing your part designs might also do it. Just ensure that the design changes don’t affect its functionality.
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Increase machining volumes
Your CNC machine has been designed to handle parts of all volumes. So, chances are you’re underutilizing the machine, and hence the losses.
Increasing your production volumes by producing multiple parts at a time can help you address this.
Since the CNC machine will be using the same fixturing and CAM programming repeatedly, you’ll cut down most of the costs.
However, be strategic in the process and don’t produce more parts than you need.
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Consider outsourcing the job
You don’t have to do all the tasks yourself – especially if you are draining your money and resources.
Outsourcing your CNC machining can save you time and energy, giving you the freedom to focus on other processes. Moreover, in house machining is quite expensive, given that you’ll cater for repairs and maintenance costs.
With numerous CNC machining companies out there, outsourcing will allow you to take advantage of the latest technologies and the best experts in the industry.
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Standardize as much as you can
The best policy you can have when trying to reduce costs is standardizing your productions.
Whether it’s the hole sizes, wall thickness, or the corner radius, sticking to a standard size will have a significant impact on your costs. It’ll reduce your tooling and material requirements, as well as the machine set-up time.
Final thoughts
For any manufacturing industry, reducing production costs doesn’t have to be a tough nut to crack. With the right strategies, you can significantly reduce your operation costs.
CNC machining is but one of the areas you can use to minimize costs. So, implement the tips above and start saving some money!
