10 Things to Consider When Buying Medical Precision Components

We all remember the expression “if you build it, they will come,” but in the world of machining large parts, it seems to be “if you buy it, they will come”. What I’m referring to is the high demand of large CNC mills, lathes, and other machine tools.

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But one problem for customers with large sized parts is finding machine shops with the work envelopes that meet their need. When looking to outsource typical precision components, most customers have a stable base of local shops that can do the work at a fair price and with quick turnaround. But one problem for customers with large sized parts is finding machine shops with the work envelopes that meet their need.

Parts with dimensions of 30″+ require equipment that most shops don’t have. Due to the scarcity of large machines and people that know how to use them, OEMs are beginning to understand that they may have to employ the services of a new supplier for these difficult jobs. By doing so correctly, it not only gives them the ability to get their current parts manufactured, but now their designers can design products with large part manufacturability in mind.

Top Considerations When Choosing a Large Parts Machining Supplier

When looking for a new supplier for machining large parts, here are some key things you should look out for:

1: Overall Work Envelope

Different machinery is shaped in various orientations. This is important to note when choosing a supplier for large parts CNC machining. If you have a part that is 45″x 60″ x 100″, it may not fit on all mills that advertise 100″. The overall envelope matters just as much. The part may be better suited for a boring mill, horizontal, or gantry mill. By checking out specs and speaking to the engineers at the supplier’s facility, you should be able to understand if your parts can truly fit.

2: Financial Stability

Machining large parts is usually expensive! You must ensure that the supplier is financially viable. Remember, they will be buying large quantities of material and paying a team of employees over a course of many weeks or months before they ever get paid for all that effort and expenditure. The last thing you would want is to deal with a company that exhausted all their working capital on WIP and cannot afford to finish the job. Worse yet, the end up in bankruptcy because they are waiting to get paid (we have seen this many times). So, check the books to make sure your supplier isn’t biting off more than they can chew.

3. Process Development Engineers

When dealing with large parts machining, you are inevitable going to run into unexpected problems. The right people to deal with these problems are experienced process development or manufacturing engineers. By having an engineering team in place, the supplier can start to build a repeatable process so that the parts come out correctly every time. With large and expensive parts, scrapping is a very big deal. Your parts will probably have difficult features, dimensions, and tolerancing that needs to be held. The engineers will sort out the details regarding fixturing, heat treating, tooling and other attributes that will guarantee success in making the parts.

For large parts, it’s paramount that you look beyond local suppliers to find the experts in this category. By doing proper homework, and choosing suppliers with the right equipment, financial stability, and a capable engineering team, you are on the right track. Don’t be afraid to get a tour of the facility so you can personally inquire about the process and envision your parts in the supplier’s shop.

Partnering With a Reliable Large Parts Machining and Fabrication Supplier

As recently as the early s, there was a big push for manufacturers to outsource operations overseas, with the promise of getting parts made significantly cheaper in countries like China—pennies to the dollar compared to the cost of American-made parts. 

However, we’ve observed a clear turn of events in recent years. Companies once lured by the ostensibly cheap cost of outsourced manufacturing have re-embraced American manufacturing after finding out the hard way that cheaper typically does not equal better. In many cases, it can mean significantly lower quality—among other drawbacks. 

While we would never tell buyers or engineers where to source their parts, we urge anyone reading this article to consider all the hidden costs of overseas manufacturing. 

6 Factors to Consider before Sourcing Parts Overseas 

Here are six factors to consider before sourcing parts overseas: 

1. Quality

When you order a cheap part, you’re likely sacrificing quality. We’ve seen customers order the same part 3-4x overseas to get it right when they could have come to our domestic precision machine shop and gotten it right the first time. 

It’s also important to keep in mind that poor-quality parts wear down faster and break more easily, which can mean paying for a replacement part sooner than anticipated. Investing more in a high-quality part up front often saves money in the long run. 

Are you interested in learning more about Medical Precision Components? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!

2. Lead times

Many overseas manufacturers quote customers' lead times of up to 6-8 months. In contrast, American manufacturers can often deliver parts in just a few weeks. At Area Tool & Manufacturing, Inc., we can even achieve a same-day turnaround for certain projects.

3. Logistics and transportation 

International transport can contribute to increased costs and lead times—especially in this current era of post-pandemic supply chain disruptions. Additionally, far more risk is involved when parts pass through multiple channels to reach their destination. 

Working with a domestic precision machine shop significantly reduces these risks and allows for any issues that occur to be resolved much more easily. 

We’ve experienced the downsides of shipping parts overseas firsthand. One of our customers who outsourced some of their manufacturing operations to China ordered a critical part from Area Tool & Manufacturing, Inc. We sent them tens of thousands of dollars worth of parts, which disappeared after going through customs in China. 

Of course, domestic shipments can get lost, too, but it’s less work to track them down and recover the parts. 

4. Communication 

Communication issues such as time zone differences and language barriers complicate manufacturing partnerships, resulting in time-consuming back and forth. Some overseas manufacturers may even use different terminology than you, leading to costly miscommunications. For example, we’ve learned that when we use the term “hard milling” with manufacturers in China, they aren’t always clear about what we mean. You don’t have to worry about those issues when you work with a domestic precision machine shop.

5. Machine downtime  

As you know, when a machine goes down, every minute of production time lost affects your company’s bottom line. It’s important to receive fully functional replacement parts quickly to get operations running again. 

Ordering parts from an American manufacturer mitigates issues related to quality, lead times, logistics, and other factors so you can resume production ASAP.

6. Material purity 

Overseas manufacturers tend to source materials from the countries where they are located, and those materials aren’t always as high quality as materials sourced in America. For instance, a solid bar of Chinese steel might have varying densities throughout. 

American manufacturers are more likely to source pure, high-quality materials from American materials suppliers, ensuring that customers receive better parts. In fact, at Area Tool & Manufacturing, Inc., we refuse to buy materials from anywhere other than here in the US.

High-Stakes Parts Require High-Quality Precision Machining

Some companies choose to source simple parts (such as brackets) from overseas manufacturers and order critical parts from American shops. 

While basic parts may seem low-risk enough to entrust to a cheap supplier in China, we always encourage customers to think about the bigger picture. Many of our OEM customers build high-stakes automation machines to produce medical equipment, which means that even something as simple as a bracket must fit perfectly into larger assemblies. Having the same shop machine all of the components in an assembly is the best way to prevent quality issues and ensure that the assembly functions as intended.

If you’d like to work with an American precision machine shop with a track record of delivering high-quality parts, request a quote from Area Tool & Manufacturing, Inc.

If you want to learn more, please visit our website Two Color Injection Molding.