GlossaryKind of term: Manufacturing termManufacturability
What is manufacturability?
Manufacturability is the extent to which a part with all its requirements can be made, measured and delivered with your own machines, resources and suppliers.
Manufacturability describes whether, and under which conditions, a part can be made to its requirements, and whether you can show that it meets them. It is not a property of the drawing alone but a relation between part, requirements, route and resources: machines, workholding, tooling, measuring equipment, skills and subcontractors. The same part can be routine work in one shop and a risk in another. The answer is rarely a plain yes or no; often it is ‘manufacturable, provided that’.
What does manufacturability depend on?
Manufacturability depends on factors that interact: the work envelope and the access to every feature with a tool of usable length; whether machine and workholding hold the tolerances between features; the stability of thin walls and slender parts under cutting force; a gauge and a method for every requirement, with a measurement uncertainty that is small compared with the tolerance; and subcontractors for the finish at the required coating thickness or hardness. One requirement that none of your resources can meet can make the whole request unmanufacturable without a design change.
How does manufacturability work in practice?
Manufacturability limits which routes are possible, and the route drives the cost. A tight position tolerance between two sides can be held in one setup on a 5-axis machine, or in two setups on a 3-axis machine with a fixture and probing; both can be manufacturable, at a different cost and a different risk. A requirement you cannot hold reliably is best put to the customer before you quote, as a question or with a proposal for a different tolerance. A part found to be unmanufacturable only at the machine costs material, machine time and lead time.
What is manufacturability often confused with?
Manufacturability is not machine fit: machine fit says whether the part fits the envelope and axes of a machine, manufacturability whether you meet and demonstrate the requirements. Nor is it design for manufacturing: DfM is designing with production in mind, manufacturability the test of a given design against your resources.
How do you see manufacturability in Blake?
In Blake you check, machine by machine in your machine park, whether a part fits the envelope and axes; the deciding limit is shown alongside. That is a first check, not a manufacturability verdict. You enter the setups per route yourself and accept or undo them. More on the factory.
Frequently asked questions
Can software guarantee manufacturability?
No. A check on envelope and axes or a list of features is a first filter. Whether a tolerance is held depends on machine, workholding, tooling, measurement and skill. A measured first part is the first proof; for a batch, process stability counts too.
When do you take a requirement back to the customer?
When a tolerance or roughness is tighter than your resources hold reliably, a feature cannot be reached, a finish has no supplier, or drawing and model contradict each other. Asking before you quote usually avoids costlier surprises afterwards.