Our last newsletter was a case study about an expensive flower vase. This month we are going to look at designing and machining thin wall sections. I just gave another DFMA Bootcamp yesterday for a group of about 35 engineers (the third for this company! – They are really committed to reducing the cost of…
Our last newsletter was a case study about surface roughness. This month we are going to look at another case study for a part which was much more expensive than it should have been. This part is a machined aluminum flower vase for an aerospace application (see fig A). It is intended to hang over…
Our last newsletter was about O-Rings. This month we are going to talk about the surface roughness callout for a recent part we made. Generally speaking, surface roughness is called out as a maximum condition. For function and appearance reasons you would like to keep your surface more smooth than “X”. Whatever “X” might be…
Our last newsletter was about title block tolerances. This month we are going to talk about Toric Joints, or more commonly known as O-rings, a form of mechanical gasket. O-rings were originally patented in Sweden in 1896 and were not brought to the USA until 1937, when a machinist named Niels Christensen was awarded a…
Last month’s newsletter was about OD threads. This month we are going to talk about title block tolerances. We discussed title block tolerances in September 2010 but a recent email from a customer made us realize that there is much more to talk about. Our customer proposed completely overhauling their title block tolerances for all…
Last month’s newsletter was some thoughts about our favorite metal – Aluminum. This month we are going to talk about OD threads. This topic came from Robert C. from Megger. Thanks Robert! Any part that needs to have a nut fastened to it, or thread directly into some other part or assembly, will need to…
Last month’s newsletter was an overview of some of the different types of tools used in the turning process. This month we are going to share some thoughts about our favorite metal – Aluminum. Thank you very much to Jon Edwards for this month’s newsletter. In December of 2008 we spoke a little about materials…
Last month’s newsletter was a discussion about tolerancing parts and assemblies and how they interrelate and drive cost. This month we are going to give a brief overview on cutting tools used in the CNC milling process. This list is by no means comprehensive as there are too many types and details to cover in…
Welcome to 2011 everyone! Let me start by announcing that we now have the ability for readers to leave comments at the bottom of a newsletter. So if you want to leave one, please scroll to the bottom. I hope this allows folks to have a dialog about the topic. Last month’s newsletter was a…
