Modus vs. a Traditional CNC Machine Shop

Key Points

• There are plenty of choices for vendors who can help with CNC machining projects.
• Some are better equipped for high volume projects, while some are better equipped for complex, quick turn prototype machining.
• Modus is well positioned to support projects that are complex and include concurrent processes like FIP dispensing or application of thermal materials or absorbers.  Additionally, we can support prototype, low volume and production volume work.

You have the perfect design for a part or product. If you aren’t careful in choosing a partner that is suited for your needs, you may end up disappointed in a big way. The part may not come back as you designed it, may be more expensive than the shop originally said or it may not meet your quality standards.

This is the story that far too many designers and engineers live out when they seek to find CNC machining for their designs, when executing complex or intricate CNC machining projects.

Choosing a traditional machine shop, when you need something more, can cause problems. You can join countless happy customers and go with a high-quality CNC machine shop like Modus Advanced for projects that require it. Read on to learn more about why you want (and need) to work with a partner like Modus for parts that require high quality standards or complex machining.

For machining, you want high quality. And you’ll get it when you choose Modus Advanced. Contact us to learn more about our manufacturing services.

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Read Everything You Need To Know About CNC Machining 

You Need Quality

Many traditional machine shops simply don’t need to have robust quality systems in place in order to do the work they are best suited for. That’s not to say that a small CNC machine shop can’t do high-quality work, but traditional machine shops tend to lack the resources necessary to, for example, employ dedicated quality engineers like Modus does.

In fact, we have built our entire business around quality. We identified that quality was not only critically important in manufacturing, but lacking in far too many cases. We have set out to remedy that by securing quality certifications, maintaining a team of quality engineers, buying and using the best quality assurance software and tools and constantly evaluating our performance.

You Need a Partner, Not a Vendor

Maybe you read the title of this section and disagreed — perhaps you think you’re just looking for a CNC machining vendor. But consider this: Are you a manufacturing expert? Even if you are an engineer, you likely do not have expertise specific to engineering for manufacturability. And neither will the staff at a traditional CNC machine shop looking to simply take orders and produce high volumes of simple designs.

But at Modus, we employ a staff that is more than 10% engineers. These are engineers who know manufacturing. They can look at a design and know instantaneously whether it is designed for optimum manufacturability. That’s exactly what we do with our Design for Manufacturability (DfM) reviews.

In DfM reviews, our staff engineers assess your design for features that may not be necessarily impossible to manufacture, but may add unbelievable amounts of money to the project costs. We’ll help you avoid unnecessary expenses and come up with alternatives. 

That’s how we act as partners to the customers who come to us. And you just won’t get that at a run-of-the-mill CNC machine shop.

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You Need More Than Just Machining

There are plenty of designs that require CNC machining in addition to other concurrent manufacturing processes. In all likelihood, machining is just for one part of your design — not the whole thing. This is particularly true of RF shielding or EMI shielding parts.

Where does that leave you when you send your design to a traditional machine shop? Holding the partially completed part and trying to find the next vendor to do the form-in-place (FIP) gaskets, platings, coatings, plastics or one of many other manufacturing steps.

Sure, it’s not the end of the world to have to coordinate four or five manufacturing vendors to take care of each part of the manufacturing process. But it’s not ideal. You pay a lot in freight costs. Each handoff presents the chance for a misunderstanding and introduces risk. And no single manufacturer is accountable for the end result.

That’s what you’re stuck with when you work with a machine shop that does not cover any concurrent processes. But not at Modus. Our SigShield process is designed to solve this exact problem. Here’s how it works for one of the most common parts we manufacture, radio frequency (RF) shields:

• We machine the metal housing of the RF shield in our CNC machine shop.
• We apply any and all platings and coatings.
• We dispense FIP gaskets onto the part as your design specifies.
• We apply any and all microwave absorbers and thermal materials.
  
  

That’s four manufacturing processes in one. It’s vertical integration at its finest, and it leaves you with your part in hand in half the typical lead time. And that’s not to mention the 75% reduced freight costs and reduction in the frequency of your stress headaches. 

Modus Advanced: So Much More than a CNC Machine Shop

Modus is focused on serving customers who need complex machined parts. It’s not that we can’t handle the so-called “standard” jobs — it’s that we are a better fit for the “complex” ones.

We’re different. We partner with you to make sure your design is optimized and that it is machined and manufactured to perfection. It’s how we’ve built up a list of happy customers in diverse and quality-driven industries like defense, aerospace, telecommunications, medical and many more.

Want to join that list of happy customers? You can. All you have to do is get in touch. Give Modus a call at 925-960-8700 or contact us online today.