When requesting a quote for low-volume CNC machining, many buyers have the same reaction: the quantity is small, so why isn’t the price low?
This is a common question—and a reasonable one. The answer lies in how cost behaves in small batch production, where preparation and process control matter far more than part count.
Low-volume …
Low-volume CNC machining typically refers to short production runs made from real engineering materials, often ranging from a few pieces to a few hundred parts. The exact quantity is rarely fixed. What defines “low-volume” is the context: the design is still evolving, functional validation is ongoing, or the program is not yet stable enough to …
Steel remains one of the most widely specified materials in CNC machining, not because it is easy to cut, but because it delivers dependable strength, wear resistance, and long-term stability. From structural brackets to high-load mechanical components, steel is often chosen when aluminum simply does not offer enough margin.
That said, steel CNC machining is …
Anyone who has machined copper knows it doesn’t behave like most metals. A cut can look clean one moment and start smearing the next. The same traits that make copper valuable—high conductivity, rapid heat transfer, and consistent electrical performance—also make it sensitive to tool sharpness, chip flow, and small shifts in clamping.
If you’ve worked …
Titanium machining rarely behaves the way newcomers expect. On paper, the metal looks ideal—high strength, low weight, and corrosion resistance that holds up where stainless steel fails. But once titanium meets a cutter, everything changes. Heat concentrates at the edge, tool pressure rises faster than anticipated, and even a well-planned toolpath can drift if the …
In industries where failure is not an option—like aerospace, medical, and semiconductors—engineers are increasingly turning to PEEK (Polyether ether ketone) for mission-critical components. This high-performance thermoplastic delivers exceptional chemical resistance, mechanical stability, and heat tolerance, even under continuous loads and harsh conditions.
But these properties also make PEEK CNC machining anything but straightforward.
While injection …
Wall thickness is one of the most overlooked and problematic dimensions when doing CNC design or machining evaluations. What looks like a distance between two parallel lines on a drawing can affect material forces, heat transfer, clamping methods, tool deflection, and final assembly accuracy once it hits the cutting edge. In our daily machining at …
Polystyrene (PS) is one of the most widely used thermoplastics in industrial production. Since its commercialization by BASF in Germany in the 1930s, this material has been widely adopted in industries such as packaging, home appliances, medical devices and prototyping due to its high rigidity, transparency and good processability. While it is commonly used in …
Polycarbonate (Polycarbonate, referred to as PC) is a transparent engineering thermoplastics, both high impact strength, good heat resistance and optical transparency. Since its industrialization in the late 1950s by Germany’s Bayer (Bayer, trade name Makrolon) and the U.S. General Electric Company (GE, trade name Lexan), polycarbonate has become a representative material for transparent structural parts. …
Polypropylene (PP) is currently the second most used thermoplastic polymer in the world, after polyethylene (PE). Due to its low density, chemical resistance, recyclability and cost-effectiveness, PP has become one of the most commonly used general engineering plastics in manufacturing.
Whether it’s packaging film, automotive bumpers, medical devices and chemical piping, polypropylene materials are lightweight …
