Category Archives: MFG

Manufacturing Quality

Remanufacturing: A New Type of Manufacturing

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remanufacturingWhat do you mean a new type of manufacturing? Manufacturing is creating a product out of raw material, labor, machines, and tools. How can there be a new type? In recent years with the ongoing mindset to conserve resources and prevent waste, many companies are exploring the business of REmanufacturing; meaning taking a product that is no longer in use, at the end of its product life, or salvaged material in order to create a new or refurbished product. Continue reading →

Sheet Metal Punching vs. Stamping

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Those who are not familiar with the sheet metal world can often confuse the difference between sheet metal punching and sheet metal stamping. It sounds like one in the same since the two verbs sort of mean the same thing…right? This blog post will distinguish the difference between the two. A good reason to distinguish the difference is because the manufacturers of punching and stamping are almost always different. You wouldn’t go to a sheet metal fabricator who specializes in punching and ask for stamping, and vice versa. This is due to the different equipment involved in achieving punching versus stamping.

To give you a quick glance at the difference between the two, take a look at the different characteristics below: Continue reading →

ITAR vs. EAR Compliance

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When dealing with the manufacturing, sales, and distribution of technology in the US, the subject of exporting usually always comes up. Most technology that is made in the US is considered sensitive information for a foreign nation. For this reason, two United States export laws have been created in order to protect this information to prevent disclosure to a foreign nation. One is the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and the other is Export Administration Regulations (EAR). Here is the difference between the two: Continue reading →

Conflict Minerals Explained

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If you are in the manufacturing world, you have probably heard of the new disclosure and reporting requirements for Conflict Minerals. Although there is a lot of hype around the new topic, there still may be some confusion over what it is and why its important for international manufacturers. First off, what are “conflict minerals?” Continue reading →

Realistic Manufacturing Quantities

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“I’d like a quote for 1, 5, 25, 50, 100, 1000.” I’m sure you’ve seen or heard people request quantities like this before. From a manufacturers’ point of view, this can cause an issue with quoting a price. Reason being, the difference of how a part is manufactured when making 1 as oppose to 1,000 are polar opposites because they will be made differently. You may be asking yourself, ‘why when it’s the same part,’ right? The answer to that solely depends on the actual part being made, but let’s do an example.

Say you’re fabricating a sheet metal enclosure where there are several bends, holes, welding, and hardware. When fabricating low quantities, here are the factors that need to be considered: Continue reading →