The designs for the machined plastic components need to be precise and without any error in every way possible for proper working and longer life. Therefore, there are some guidelines related to technical aspects of machining as well as hiring a contract manufactures, which you need to follow for reasonable pricing and accurate configurations along with suitable applications.

Selection of a Contract Manufacturer

When you decide to partner up with a plastic machining company, you should focus on becoming a proficient organization which has the much required knowledge of the industry in addition to the product it manufactures. Here are some parameters explained below which you should take into account while choosing a contract manufacturer:

• Choose a manufacturer who has a proper and effective safety program for the elimination of hazards and accidents so as to ensure timely completion and quality along with right implementation of production methodology.
• It should have an excellent record of on-time deliveries for its clients.
• Make sure that the contractor uses lean manufacturing so that there can be reduction in costs and purchase of extra raw materials.
• The contractor must have programs to ensure quality and trained professionals must be employed for ensuring highest potential and avoiding errors and accidents.
• Make sure that the contractor has enough knowledge and experience to help you to acquire a market edge over your competitors.
• Lastly, choose a reputable and reliable contract manufacturer who has the capability of setting industry and production standards and can assure high quality machined plastic components.

Flatness and Threaded Inserts

For improving the flatness stability of machined plastics, you should consider a balanced design, restrained flatness and stable materials so that proper and required flatness can be achieved. You can also think about hiring an efficient manufacturer whom can provide you with advanced processing services for critical components related to flatness. Also, you can go for parallelism instead of flatness for producing desired results.

Threaded inserts are suitable for those applications where repeated assembly is required. Heat staked ones are better as they give higher power for pullout and helicoils can be used for those who are tough and robust in nature.

Polishing and Finishing

Methods such as vapor polishing, buffing, flame polishing and direct machine polishing are used for polishing opaque plastics as well as clear plastics like Polycarbonate, Acrylic, Ultem and Polysulfone. Make sure that you get your plastic components machined and polished by one dealer only for achieving professional finishing. Surface finishing must be below 63 micro inches and differ types of standards are used for different machined plastic components.

Apart from all these aspects, there are other considerations also like tolerances, material selection and dimensional stability. Tolerances depend upon the types of materials used and their configurations. Material selection in plastics must be done while keeping their ability to change in long term and reaction with other chemicals in mind.

Proper dimensional stability can be achieved if you consider factors like moisture absorption, stress relaxation, UV/aging, off-grassing and thermal changes. Choose the appropriate plastic material for machining based on these factors for acquiring stability dimensions.