Mastering Complex Mid-Volume Parts in Our Precision Manufacturing Shop
At Area Tool & Manufacturing, we excel at creating complex parts in both low and medium volume. We’re ready for parts with tight tolerances, tough geometries, and challenging materials because we’ve built our team and our capabilities to handle projects that require an expert shop.
Evolving into Complementary Capabilities
One of the biggest strengths of our operation is the way our capabilities work together. Few of the parts we manufacture require only a single machine or a single department in our shop. Instead, they often involve multiple steps across different sections of Area Tool & Manufacturing, and we’ve developed our shop floor with that in mind.
Rather than simply specializing in one capability and maximizing capacity in that area, we have invested in a range of complementary processes to fill gaps in potential customer needs. If one department is not the right fit for a certain feature, we likely have another that can help.
Sinker EDM is a good example of our evolution. Features like sharp internal corners can be expensive or impossible to achieve with traditional machining methods, even using advanced 5-axis machining. Sinker EDM has given us a straightforward way to meet that requirement with our typical precision.
Experience Is as Important as Equipment
Proper technology and equipment are necessary for manufacturing complex parts, but they’re never sufficient. Equipment alone cannot solve the most difficult manufacturing problems.
We feel confident in our expertise because we’ve been honing it for many years. Several decades ago, we began expanding the range of customer and part types we supported. That led to a wider mix of projects in our shop, and as a result, we grew more comfortable diving into challenges and solving tough problems with our customers.
Over the years, we’ve learned how to collaborate with customers on manufacturability and refined our processes around the reality of difficult parts.
The Right Mindset for Tough Parts
Along with technical experience, mindset plays a major role in our complex manufacturing.
Many of our team members bring decades of experience to the shop, and that knowledge is a major advantage. But at the same time, it’s also critical to continue to add younger team members to build for the long-term. Newer employees may not yet have the same history of confronting these tough parts, but they still have the enthusiasm and problem-solving ability that have allowed us to be successful for so long.
That mindset is central to what we do in our shop. We want the tough parts; they’re often the projects we enjoy the most. Our team takes pride in delivering excellent results.
Bring Us Your Complex Parts
We want to talk to you about your next difficult part or project! Our team will ask important questions about critical features, manufacturability, and application to help keep the part as functional and cost-effective as possible.
We aim to help you produce successful parts with a smooth customer experience so you can have confidence in your most challenging projects.
Request a quote today to experience how our shop approaches complexity!
