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Between the first molded sample and the production tool there is usually a gap: the design is close enough to sell, the launch date will not wait for a long tool build, and the production tool cannot be cut until the last changes are settled. Bridge tooling exists to fill

The tool material decision usually arrives with a quantity forecast attached, and the forecast is usually wrong. Choosing aluminium because the first order is small, then discovering the program runs for three years, is a more expensive mistake than paying for steel at the start; choosing steel for a product

A prototype that has been printed, cast and assembled can still fail the moment it is molded, because molding introduces variables the other routes do not have: melt flow, gate position, shrinkage and ejection. Prototype injection molding exists to expose those variables before a production tool is committed. The parts

The question is rarely whether a prototype mold is cheaper, because it obviously is. The question is what the program gives up by choosing one, and whether the difference matters for the quantity the product will actually run. A prototype tool delivers parts sooner and absorbs a change more cheaply;

A black anodized batch that comes back two shades apart is one of the most common disputes in finishing, and it is rarely the finisher's fault alone. Colour in anodizing depends on the alloy, the temper, the coating thickness, the dye concentration and the sealing step, and a specification that

Machining a plastic part is often the fastest way to get a hundred units that behave like the final product. It is also, above a certain quantity, an expensive way to avoid a tool. The comparison between machining and low volume molding is one of the most useful exercises in

A machined aluminium part measures perfectly, goes for anodizing, and comes back unable to accept its mating component. Nothing went wrong: the coating grew into and out of the surface, and the drawing did not account for it. Coating growth is one of the few finishing effects that is entirely

An anodizing order usually starts with a colour and a part, and that is where the problems begin. The coating is an oxide layer grown from the aluminium itself, so the alloy, the temper, the surface before processing and the class of coating all change the result. Two parts machined

At twenty parts, printing is usually the obvious answer. At five thousand, it usually is not. The interesting part is everything between, where the comparison depends on the part rather than on the process: the volume, the geometry, the material and whether the units have to be saleable rather than

Plating enquiries usually arrive as a metal name: nickel, chrome, zinc, tin. That is the wrong starting point. An electroplating system has to satisfy the requirement that matters, whether that is corrosion protection, wear resistance, electrical conductivity, solderability or appearance, and the same metal behaves very differently depending on thickness,

Aluminium is a common substrate for powder coating and a more delicate one than it first appears. The surface carries a natural oxide layer that forms within minutes of cleaning, it conducts heat far better than steel so thin sections heat and cool quickly, and it is soft enough that

A powder-coated part that will not assemble is a familiar problem, and it is always the same two causes: the film closed a clearance that was dimensioned without it, or a thread was coated when it should have been protected. Unlike anodizing, powder coating builds a film on top of