Tight Tolerances
The current precision parts manufacturing industry relies on a plethora of processes to assemble any end product. Each product is a collection of smaller parts joined together to fulfill a certain task or purpose.
Just like any sports team, in order to win all the players must play well within a certain framework that ensures that their individual talents come together for the common goal of winning. In the engineering world, this team play is essential as well. That’s why engineers introduced the concept of tight tolerance.
Tight tolerance is defined as the allowable amount of variation of a specified quantity, especially in the dimensions of a machined part.
All the single parts inside any product ensure the result of one industrial process or another, whether it be injection molding, die cutting, CNC machining or laser cutting, it’s very important that all the single parts fit well together to make the final product. It is key to make sure that you add suitable tolerances to your design that correlate to the processes involved with the production of the various components.
While tolerances like ±0.01” are acceptable for most crude designs, these tolerances have no place in the world of modern electronic or medical design. Today’s technical precision is so intricate that a mere thousandth of an inch can mean the difference between life and death, success and failure!
Due to the specificity of this type of manufacturing, what is the best way to manufacture your parts if you need tight tolerances of ±0.001” and tighter?
Laser cutting is the answer to the current and future wave of modern electronic and medical design.
A-Laser systems can easily give you tolerances of ±0.001” and that is just the tip of the iceberg. LPKF laser systems and their remarkable accuracy enable us to offer you tight tolerances as narrow as ±0.0005” and beyond on many designs.
While some other manufacturers offer those tolerances as well for standard dimensions, what sets A-Laser apart is true position. If tight tolerance is not done correctly, parts and products will underperform or fail due to lack of true position considerations, leading to dissatisfied customers and profit loss. The true position is the exact coordinate, or location, defined by basic dimensions or other means that represents the nominal value. Therefore, the GD&T “Position” Tolerance is how far your features location can vary from its “True Position”.
A-Laser works with product design teams to minimize the shrink and warp that can impact tight tolerance negatively. We consider the application environment, temperature, and material selection to best meet our manufacturers needs. This attention to detail allows us to then produce superior quality products for their customers.
Few manufacturers will even mention tight tolerance to you, not only because they can’t hold it, they can’t even inspect for it.
A-Laser uses specific tools for roughing and finishing. This allows the roughing tool to take the brunt of the wear, while the finishing tool is saved for the final passes. Our tooling choices allow us to ensure a repeatable process for creating accurate parts.
While tight tolerance may not have been important in the past, it’s vital in today’s manufacturing market. A-Laser’s state-of-the-art performance in manufacturing helps you meet customers need for eliminating secondary operations, ease in procuring mating parts, and conversion of metal parts to plastic. All of this efficiency reduces cost.
Don’t let the physical constraints of conventional manufacturing curb your creativity and keep you from an increased customer base and higher profits. Come to us first and join the next level of manufacturing. Be part of the future!