Intro In a lot of cases, plastic is the hardest-working material. In almost any industry, there’s at least one application where plastic does a much better job than metal or wood. Still, people don’t understand how plastic can be machined or used. In this guide,…
Intro Heat-treating a piece of metal can result in a range of different benefits. A lot of people will use heat-treated metals to improve their operation and gain an advantage over their competitors. If you want to make the most out of your metal parts,…
Intro Injection molding and 3D printing are the reigning champions of fabricating parts out of plastic. Plenty of machine shops offer one or both of these, but how are you supposed to know which one to use? More specifically, which one is more affordable? The…
Intro When you have a high-heat application, you need to make sure that your parts can withstand the temperatures. With 3D printing, that can be tricky. Standard PLA material will start melting at 50°C, which makes it useless in high-temperature applications. However, there are other…
Intro Die casting is a great way to get a number of nearly identical parts made out of metal. The process is faster than most traditional machining options, and the final part is typically less expensive. The biggest driving decision in die casting is the…
Intro When it comes to injection molding, the biggest expense is the upfront tooling costs. You might spend $100,000 on a complicated tool, but then it only costs $0.10 per part afterwards. In an effort to save money and time, a lot of people turn…
Intro Heat treatment is a critical finishing step that can fully transform how a part works. It’s a process that makes parts harder, stronger, and more resistant. In this guide, we’ll explain how you can use heat treatment to improve a CNC-machined part. What Is…
We're proud to announce that we'll be featured on Season 7 of Battle Bots. That's right, Rapid Axis is sponsoring Berkley's Combat Robotics & Team Horizon on their latest projects. In early 2023, the Glitch Bot and Team Horizon will return to the Battle Bots…
Intro Urethane casting is one of the best options for medium-volume production runs. It creates production-quality plastic parts in a fraction of the time that traditional machining would take. The finished parts are high-quality, highly repeatable, and low-cost. If you want to learn more about…
Intro If you want to make the most out of your upcoming fabrication project, you need a good machine shop in your corner. The machine shop you choose should be an ally and help you through the process while hitting your specs and delivering on…
Intro Injection molding is one of the most common forms of manufacturing products in bulk. The medical device industry adopted injection molding as their gold standard for mass-produced parts, and there are a lot of reasons why. In this guide, we’ll give an introduction to…
Intro A lot of people who call us don’t know which manufacturing style is right for their project. Luckily our team is filled with expert machinists, so we know what options you have pretty immediately. However, we think it might help you to understand one…