Follow me on: 
Choose a Reliable Rapid Manufacturing Company In China
Choosing a rapid manufacturing company has obvious appeal in China, and the price is even 50% lower than that of companies in Europe and the United States, but the ensuing trouble is that it needs to take certain risks. In recent history, China’s manufacturing industry has developed relatively slowly. After the 1990s, even with leaps and bounds, China’s manufacturing industry still cannot match the quality standards of Europe and the United States, and there may be communication problems in the process of establishing cooperation. Frustratingly, China’s lax intellectual property policy means that global customers are reluctant to hand over design blueprints to Chinese prototype rapid manufacturing companies.
Fortunately, Chinese rapid manufacturing companies envisioning global commerce are trying to break the shackles of this stereotype. DDPROTOTYPE was established with a focus on global business and is committed to becoming a leader in rapid manufacturing services in China, an ISO9001-2015 certified expert in rapid prototyping and small batch manufacturing. DDPROTOTYPE has become more and more popular and has received Trusted by many well-known companies, such as Siemens, Olympus, Mitsubishi, Areva and ABB, etc., to provide high-quality services, including: CNC machining, vacuum casting, 3D printing, rapid tooling and plastic injection molding, sheet metal Gold manufacturing and other processes, serving automobiles, aircraft, robots, autonomous driving, medical equipment, electronic products, optical parts, semiconductor parts, etc. DDPROTOTYPE has 15 years of experience in prototyping, ensuring quality, confidentiality and reliability, making a great contribution to the world’s prototyping manufacturing, winning praise among its customers.
Quality
Quality is the biggest concern in seeking a rapid manufacturing company in China. Of course, the price looks very tempting, so I can’t wait to arrange production, but does the result meet the stringent standards for drawing annotations? If the prototype does not meet the expected quality standards, the cost advantage is a false economic benefit. DDPROTOTYPE has fast turnaround, rich experience, 7*24 hours, and has advanced equipment from the United States and Japan, such as Haas 5-axis vertical machining center, which produces 100,000+ parts and delivers 500+ projects every year. The CNC machining services provided are better than those in Europe and the United States. The standard of service is comparable or even exceeds your expectations.
DDPROTOTYPE’s quality assurance includes a comprehensive quality control system including measuring and testing equipment and a multi-stage inspection process, providing each customer with a comprehensive standard quality inspection report.
In terms of material selection, the X-ray material testing machine can identify and differentiate metals within 30 seconds, minimizing the possibility of incorrect materials. One of the most important stages in a quality control system is the use of a state-of-the-art coordinate measuring machine (CMM). The CMM is used to precisely measure the geometry of a part by sensing points on the part’s surface, allowing DDPROTOTYPE to determine whether the finished part matches the initial design.
Communication and Turnaround
Even under the premise of ensuring the quality of prototypes, many European and American companies still have concerns about placing orders in China, and have to consider geographical factors, resulting in communication difficulties and long-distance logistics turnover, resulting in longer prototype processing cycles.
DDPROTOTYPE, as a well-respected international business company committed to the development of global manufacturing integration, will of course avoid these problems. Fluent English is an essential quality for sales staff and engineering staff. With many years of experience in cooperating with customers all over the world, they can accurately discuss any details of the project and fully understand the purpose of the customer. Plus, DDPROTOTYPE is known for its incredibly fast turnaround, being able to provide quotes within 5 hours, ship parts within 7 days, and meet delivery budgets on 99% of orders. The modern and fast logistics system, as a senior partner of DHL\TNT\FEDEX\, can ensure that American customers receive satisfactory prototype parts within 2-4 days.
Keeping Secret
DDPROTOTYPE fully complies with legally binding non-disclosure agreements that protect clients’ intellectual property and encourage clients to request an NDA. Internally, DDPROTOTYPE establishes a complete confidentiality agreement mechanism, signs strict legal agreements with employees, equips core employees with private office equipment and office environment, ensures CNC machining, vacuum casting, rapid tooling, sheet metal prototyping and all Other technical services are completely confidential.
DDPROTOTYPE forms strategic alliances with like-minded companies to provide high-quality prototyping solutions that can complete your designs in hours. This gives you the opportunity to rigorously test the product and make all necessary changes to refine the design before full production.
In the field of custom production, it is difficult to find a technology more popular than CNC machining so far. CNC machining is characterized by high efficiency, accuracy, reproducibility, ease of operation and wide selection of materials. Typically, CNC machining services refer to 3-, 4-, and 5-axis milling and turning.
Material
In terms of materials, CNC machining can choose sheet, plate or strip. Of the hundreds of metal alloys and plastic polymers that can be processed, aluminum and engineering plastics are most commonly used for rapid prototyping. To avoid the high costs and lead times of mold making, plastic parts designed to be mass-produced are often CNC machined at the prototype stage.
Access to a variety of materials is especially important when prototyping rapidly. Because different materials have different costs and different mechanical and chemical properties, for more complex designs, cutting prototypes in materials that are less expensive than final product plans may be preferable, or using different materials can help optimize the design The strength, stiffness or weight of the part. In some cases, alternate materials used for prototypes may allow for specific finishing processes, or be more durable than production parts to facilitate testing.
Conversely, it is also feasible to replace engineering resins and high-performance metal alloys with low-cost commodity materials when prototypes are used for simple functional purposes such as assembly inspection or model construction.
CNC Machining Metal And Plastic Parts
Although CNC machines were developed for metal machining, plastics can be successfully CNC machined with the right knowledge and equipment. Both thermoplastics and thermosets can be processed and are highly cost-effective.
Plastic Parts
In contrast to metals, most thermoplastics, such as PE, PP or PS, will melt or burn if CNC machined with feeds and speeds common in metal machining. Higher milling cutter speeds and lower feed rates are common, and cutting tool parameters such as rake angle are critical. Controlling the heat in the cut is essential, but unlike metal, coolant is usually not sprayed into the cut to cool it. Compressed air can be used to remove chips.
Thermoplastics, especially unfilled commercial grade thermoplastics, deform elastically when cutting forces are applied, making it difficult to achieve high accuracy and maintain tolerances, especially for fine features and details. For example, CNC machining of automotive lighting and optical lenses is particularly difficult.
DDPROTOTYPE has 15 years experience in CNC machining plastics, specializing in optical prototypes such as automotive lenses, light guides and mirrors. When processing transparent plastics such as polycarbonate and acrylic, machining operations such as grinding and polishing can be reduced or eliminated if a higher surface finish is expected during processing. Micromachining using single-point diamond machining (SPDM) provides precision of less than 200 nm and improved surface roughness of less than 10 nm. In this way, the CNC machined automotive lighting looks bright and flawless.
Metal Parts
Carbide cutting tools are often used for CNC machining of harder materials. But finding the right geometry to cut carbide, such as stainless steel, can be difficult. Therefore, high-speed steel (HSS) cutting tools are usually used.
CNC aluminum machining is one of the most typical material choices. Aluminum can be cut at high feeds and speeds compared to plastic, and can be cut dry or with coolant. It is important to pay attention to the grade of aluminum when setting up to cut aluminum. For example, the very common 6000 grade contains magnesium and silicon. These alloys are more machinable and have higher strength and toughness than 7000 grades with zinc as the main alloying component.
Also pay attention to the tempering designation of the aluminum billet. These designations indicate that the material has undergone heat treatment or strain hardening, such as during processing and end use, which affects the mechanical properties of the material.
CNC Machining Technology
5-axis CNC machining is more expensive than 3-axis machines, but they are gaining popularity in rapid manufacturing due to several technical advantages. For example, a part with two-sided features can be cut faster with a 5-axis CNC machine because the part is held in such a way that the spindle can reach both sides in the same operation, whereas with a 3-axis machine, the part would need to be cut twice or more Operations such as secondary setting, turning over processing, etc. 5-axis CNC machines can also produce complex geometries and fine surface finishes for precision machining as the angle of the tool can be adapted to the shape of the part.
In addition to milling machines, CNC lathes and turning centers, EDM machines and other tools can assist CNC machining. For example, CNC milling machines + CNC turning centers and wire and sinker EDM are common. For rapid manufacturing service providers, flexible machine configuration and machining practices can increase efficiency and reduce machining costs. Flexibility is one of the main advantages of a 5-axis CNC machining center, and combined with the high purchase price of the machine, shops are strongly encouraged to keep running 24/7 if possible.
Precision Machining and Micromachining
Precision machining refers to CNC machining operations with tolerances within ±0.05mm and is widely used in automotive, robotics, medical equipment and aerospace parts manufacturing.
A typical application for micromachining is single point diamond machining (SPDM or SPDT). The main advantages of diamond machining are the machining of demanding custom parts: shape accuracy is less than 200 nm and surface roughness is less than 10 nm. The surface finish of the mold is an important consideration when manufacturing optical prototypes, such as clear plastic or reflective metal parts. Diamond machining is a method of producing high-precision, high-finish surfaces during machining, especially for PMMA, PC, and aluminum alloys. Suppliers that specialize in machining optical components out of plastic are very specialized, but the service can significantly reduce costs compared to short-run or prototype tooling.
Application Field
Of course, CNC machining is widely used in all manufacturing industries to machine metal and plastic end-use parts. However, in mass production, other methods such as molding, casting or stamping techniques are often faster and less expensive than CNC machining after the initial cost of molds and tooling has been spread over a large number of parts.
That’s part of the reason why CNC machining services are perfect for rapid manufacturing prototypes.
CNC Machining And 3D Printing
CNC machining is the process of choice for rapid manufacturing of metal and plastic prototypes, as molds are required with 3D printing, vacuum casting, forming or other manufacturing techniques. Compared with other processes with additional steps, CNC machining has a shorter cycle time.
This “push-button” agility in converting digital CAD files into parts is often touted by 3D printing proponents as a major advantage of 3D printing. However, CNC machining is also preferable to 3D printing in many cases. It can take hours to finish machining a 3D printed part, while CNC machining can take minutes.
3D printing builds parts in layers, which can result in parts developing different strengths in different directions compared to CNC-machined parts made from a single piece of material. The uniformity of intensity is inconsistent.
The limited selection of materials available for 3D printing may limit the functionality of the printed prototype. Whereas CNC machining is a subtractive process on the same material, the prototype can be made of the same material as the final part. CNC machined prototypes can be used in end-use design materials to meet functional verification and engineering verification of the prototype.
3D printed features (such as holes, threaded holes, surface roughness and surface finish) also require post-processing processes, often hand sanding and polishing.
While 3D printing does offer advantages in manufacturing technology, today’s CNC machines still have many advantages without some disadvantages and still cannot be replaced by other processes.
Fast turnaround CNC machines can work 24 hours a day. This makes CNC machining economical for short-run production parts that require extensive operations.
With the manufacturing market trending toward customization and variety, abandoning the old model of one-size-fits-all mass production, CNC machining is proving to be a versatile solution to quickly and flexibly manufacture custom parts. However, just using CNC machines is not enough. The use of lean manufacturing methods, optimized processes, and control over production costs and supply chains will also have a significant impact on productivity. In custom parts and low-volume manufacturing prototypes, this effect is magnified, as settings are changed and opportunities to waste are also more frequent.
To learn more about CNC machining for rapid manufacturing prototyping and low-volume manufacturing, please contact DDPROTOTYPE or request a free quote through its website.