Mechanical tools and sophisticated machinery have revolutionised the manufacturing industry in recent years. Exponentially increasing the capabilities and quality that can be offered by manufacturing services, and also freeing up thousands of man-hours, it’s fair to say that the modern manufacturing industry couldn’t do what it does without a mechanical helping hand.
But did you know that most manufacturers are only utilising 5-10% of their machine tools’ actual capabilities? Take CNC, machines, for example. These devices, a shorthand abbreviation of the term ‘computer numerical control’, are used alongside CAD software to directly replicate a virtual design in a physical sense. They have been around for some years now, but many manufacturing and engineering companies are reticent to make use of them, or greatly limit their usage.
Although such machines have been accused of lowering the aptitude of skilled workers – because the machines do such a lot of the complex work for us – and even removing the need for human employees, the advantages brought by such machinery are enormous. These benefits include:
- Continual operation: CNC machines don’t need to rest, and can often work more quickly than humans.
- Unvarying replication: even the work of a skilled engineer will vary by a minute amount between examples, whereas each product manufactured by a CNC machine will be an exact match.
- Reduces prototype costs: because prototypes can be made on CAD, there is no need to waste money on ‘physical’ trial runs.
These three points alone (and there are many others we could have mentioned), really showcase the capabilities of CNC machines, and display how they can really assist a manufacturing service to go ‘all out’. However, they’re by no means the only modern devices that are making their mark.
3D printing is another closely related system, and this allows the formation of even complex components from a 3D model that is contained on a data source. The products are manufactured in ‘layers’ by a robot, and here at Airedale Springs we’ve found that such systems are of great utility. Although we don’t yet use 3D printing for our springs, we’ve recognised its value and have begun to take advantage of it within the creation of our wire forms, and we’re always looking to refine our use of such technology to improve our services even more.
At Airedale Springs, we think that moving with the times is incredibly important, and that’s why we make use of innovations like 3D printing, but we also know that human skills are irreplaceable in ensuring a quality service as well, and that’s why our spring manufacturers combine both human ingenuity and cutting edge technology into a single successful package. If you’d like to find out more, please don’t hesitate to contact us now by calling 01535 643456 or emailing sales@www.airedalesprings.co.uk.