What to Look for in a Customer-Designed Tooling Manufacturer
When you are looking for a customer-designed tooling manufacturer, it can be difficult to know exactly what to look for. With so many options out there, it’s important to find the perfect fit for your customer-designed tooling. Our team explores some of the most important things to make note of.
What Manufacturing Processes Does the Customer-Designed Tooling Manufacturer Use?
When you are finding a manufacturer to create your customer-designed tooling, it is important that your tooling is created to meet all of your needs and specifications, including meeting tight tolerances. This means that it’s important to know what capabilities your manufacturer has to get the job done.
At Garland, we utilize CNC milling and lathe operations to create all of our customer-designed tooling projects, and we can also implement automation into many of our manufacturing processes:
CNC Milling
During the CNC milling process, a workpiece is mounted and a rotating tool is used to remove material, creating your customer-designed tooling. There are three different types of CNC milling we offer:
- 3-Axis Milling: This process uses cutting tools that move along the X-, Y-, and Z-axes. It is commonly used to cut sharp edges, drill holes, and perform boring and tapping operations.
- 4-Axis Milling: This process removes material along X-, Y-, Z-, and A-axes to cut holes, cut along arcs, carve cut-outs, and perform precision engravings, milling, and drilling.
- 5-Axis Milling: This process has tools that move in different directions — translation along the X-, Y-, and Z-axes and rotation along the A- and C-axes to create highly precise tooling.
CNC Lathe
CNC lathing is also known as turning. During this process, the workpiece is mounted and rotated rapidly while stationary tools remove bits of the material to create your desired tooling. CNC lathes are specifically used to create tooling with complex designs. Garland also has Swiss lathe capabilities to create tooling with tight tolerances that are thinner, more precise, and intricate.
Is Your Customer-Designed Tooling Manufacturer Dedicated to Quality and Consistency?
It is also important to know that your tooling manufacturer is dedicated to producing consistent, high-quality tools for your needs. One of the best ways you can tell if your manufacturer is dedicated to quality is if they have certifications.
At Garland, we hold an AS9100 certification, an ITAR registration, and a DLIS certification.
- AS9100: This quality management standard adds to the ISO 9001:2015 quality management standards, setting specific requirements for the aerospace and defense industries.
- ITAR: This allows us to handle export-controlled items or technical data that may be subject to export-control restrictions as required by law.
- DLIS: This certification is under the US/Canada Joint Certification Program and gives us the ability to handle military critical technical data.
Does Your Manufacturer Serve Your Industry?
You also need to ensure that you are partnering with a company that has experience in your specific industry. This shows that they know how to create tooling that meets the requirements of the industry, so you can create the products you need.
At Garland, we have the experience and knowledge needed to serve many critical industries, including:
- Aerospace
- Automotive
- Defense
- And more
Your Partner Should Have Customer Testimonials and Examples of Problems They’ve Solved
At Garland, we pride ourselves on serving our customers as best as we can. To demonstrate our commitment to our customers, we have a dedicated web page for the problems we have solved in the past.
Precision Manufacturing: The customer required a fixture that would bend 8 FETs simultaneously to a tight tolerance. However, if the tolerance was not held, the lead would be completely sheared off. Our team formed a die that held the tight tolerance and prevented this from occurring.
Extreme Tolerance Requirements: Our customer needed a complicated reflow fixture with a lid to hold and locate over 60 components in a tightly packed small space. Our team provided a reflow fixture that was engineered to balance the competing requirements of locating the components accurately while minimizing the effect on the heat profile.
Partner with Garland Service Company as Your Customer-Designed Tooling Manufacturer
When you are looking for a dedicated customer-designed tooling manufacturer, trust Garland. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help with your project.
