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Manufacturing
Information |
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It is helpful to have
at least a general background in manufacturing
processes before you talk to a draftsman about
your invention.
Materials and construction can be just as
critical as the operation of the invention itself.
For metals and plastics, there are two main
forms of fabrication: molding machining and
Molding/Casting
A mold is basically a "photo
negative" of the part to be made.
The metal or plastic that will be used is
liquefied and poured or injected into the mold to
cool. When
the material hardens, the piece can be removed.
Most metals and plastics today can be
molded. The
mold can be used over and over to make large
quantities of parts quickly and cheaply.
Molds are used almost exclusively for high
quantity production runs because of the expense
incurred in creating them.
Machining
Machining is very similar to artistic sculpturing.
A block of the raw material is cut,
drilled, and shaved with machines to produce the
desired part.
The majority of machine shops today use
computer-controlled machinery to do this.
When the machine shop receives your
blueprints, they'll program their computerized
machines with the dimensions and information for
each part of your prototype.
Often, parts will require many different
types of machining in order to produce the
finished product.
This means that each machine to be used
must be set up, programmed, calibrated, and tested
before machining the part. |
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