Garland Service Company | Premium Precision Parts and CNC Machining in Garland, TX

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GARLAND SERVICE COMPANY

tooling manufacturing

How the Customer-Designed Tooling Manufacturing Process Works

Customer-designed tooling is designed by you so it works perfectly for your applications. So, you may have a design in mind or have one ready to go, but what does the rest of the tooling manufacturing process entail? We are here to walk you through it. 

Find the Right Customer-Designed Tooling Manufacturing Partner

Once you have designed your tooling, you must find the right partner for your projects. When looking for a tooling manufacturer, there are a few things you should consider: 

Capabilities

Your manufacturer’s ability to create your tooling relies entirely on the skills of their employees and the processes they implement. At Garland, our team has decades of experience, and since our focus is on precision tooling and parts, we have the ability to use CNC machining processes to create your tooling. This yields high-quality tooling that meets tight tolerances. 

Track Record

When looking for a manufacturer, it is important to choose a partner who has experience creating customer-designed tooling for your industry. Our team at Garland has been manufacturing customer-designed tooling for various critical industries, including defense, automotive, aerospace, and more. 

Quality Certifications

You will want to make sure your partner is dedicated to providing you with quality products that meet your needs. The best way to tell if your partner is dedicated to quality is through certifications. Plus, if you are in critical industries like aerospace, it is important for your partners to hold the AS9100 quality certification, indicating that they can machine mission-critical parts. 

Tooling Review for Manufacturability and Fit

Your tooling manufacturing partner needs to perform a basic design review to determine if each part of the tool can be manufactured before starting to make the tooling. This allows any issues to be addressed early in the process so they can be fixed before production. By doing so, you will save time and money on reproducing dysfunctional tooling. 

During the assembly process, your partner should also provide feedback on whether or not the tooling will actually fit together. Unfortunately, some tooling manufacturers will send your tooling “as is” without any feedback, saying that the parts were “made to print”, which will cost you money and time in the long run. 

Tooling Manufacturing Begins

Depending on the design of your tooling, different machining processes may be used. Some of the most common manufacturing processes are CNC machining, including milling and turning. 

CNC Milling

During this process, a workpiece is mounted and a rotating tool is used to remove material, creating the tooling you need. There are a few different types of CNC milling depending on your needs: 

  • 3-Axis Milling uses cutting tools that move along the X-, Y-, and Z-axes and is commonly used to cut sharp edges, drill holes, and perform boring and tapping operations. 
  • 4-Axis Milling removes material along the X-, Y-, Z-, and A-axes, cutting holes, cutting along arcs, carving cut-outs, and performing precision engravings, milling, and drilling. 
  • 5-Axis Milling has tools that move in two different directions, translation along the X-, Y-, and Z-axes and rotation along the A- and C-axes to create highly precise products and parts. 

CNC Turning (Lathe) 

During the CNC turning process, the workpiece is mounted and rotated rapidly while stationary tools remove bits of the material to create your desired tooling. Swiss lathes are used to create tooling with tight tolerances that are thinner, more precise, and intricate. CNC lathes are used to create products and tooling with complex designs. 

When You Need Your Customer-Designed Tooling Manufactured, Contact Garland Service Company

Garland Service Company has been trusted to manufacture customer-designed tooling for decades. With our various quality certifications, you can rest assured knowing that our team will produce your tooling to meet your exact specifications. Contact us today to learn more about what we can do for you.