February 20, 2024
Intro
Starting a new injection-molded, urethane-cast, or die-cast project can be a huge obstacle. It involves lengthy design phases, tough prototyping requirements, and extensive work before production can begin. For a lot of engineers, having the right manufacturing partner can alleviate a lot of headaches.
In this expert guide, our team at Rapid Axis will explain how we can meet your prototype tooling needs with our cost-effective, fast, high-quality services.
Why Your Manufacturing Partner Is Essential for Prototype Tooling
With any production project, you’re only as strong as your manufacturing partner. A high-quality partner can turn your concepts into perfectly functioning prototypes.
A well-made prototype is invaluable — it can give you better feedback, deeper insight, and better results for your overall project. If an inexperienced machine shop makes your prototype, it can take too long, cost too much, and be dimensionally inaccurate (missing your prescribed tolerances and specs). Since prototyping is an early step of any project, a misstep here can derail the whole project.
Meanwhile, a good manufacturing partner will help you streamline your project and get you more meaningful feedback when it comes to fitments, validity, and overall performance of your part.
Why People Choose Rapid Axis for Their Prototype Tooling Needs
So, why do so many people choose Rapid Axis for their prototype tooling? We get a lot of positive feedback from our clients, and this is what they often tell us:
Quicker Turnaround Times
We never want to be the bottleneck for your prototype workflow. In other words, we’re never going to waste your time or ruin your timeline. Our machinists are experienced, and we have a wide range of manufacturing equipment on our floor. Why does that matter? All of this factors into quicker turnaround times for your prototype tooling.
With quicker turnaround times, you can jump into the next phase of your project and expedite your time to market. Hitting the shelves faster translates to recouping your money even sooner.
No Minimum Order Quantity
A lot of machine shops will require a minimum order quantity. This means that they won’t entertain your project unless you’re ordering a certain number of parts or spending a certain amount of money. While we understand this from a business perspective, it can be a huge roadblock for any company that wants to tackle prototype tooling without spending a ton of money.
With Rapid Axis, you don’t have to worry about this. We never have minimum order quantities, and we’ll happily make a single unit for you and ship it to your doorstep.
This is great news for any prototype tooling project.
Guaranteed High-Quality Parts
Other fabrication businesses will try to keep their costs low and turnarounds quick by sacrificing the quality of your parts. Our team at Rapid Axis refuses to do this. We’re proud of every part that leaves our shop, and we have a proven track record that shows how high-quality our parts are.
After all, we want you to get prototype tooling that you can use, be happy about, and test out. If we cut corners on manufacturing, that can’t happen — so, we always guarantee high-quality parts when you do business with us.
A Team of Experienced Machinists
We mention it a lot, but it’s a critical characteristic that sets Rapid Axis apart: our team of machinists is incredibly experienced, talented, and hard-working. These are the people who are making your parts from scratch, so our final quality and turnaround times all revolve around them.
With our hand-picked team of manufacturing experts, we can tackle a wider range of projects, deliver higher-quality parts, and catch potential issues before manufacturing even starts.
A Wide Range of Machines and Capabilities
Finally, people will often choose us for how many different capabilities and services we offer. We offer manufacturing services like CNC machining, sheet metal work, 3D printing, and production and prototype tooling.
We also offer a number of in-house finishing steps, including painting, powder coating, heat treatment, electroplating, polishing, anodization, and much more.
Essentially, we’re your one-stop shop for everything fabrication. We can handle your smallest prototype tooling project, or your largest injection molding production run.
Conclusion
Our trusted team at Rapid Axis has been successfully serving businesses just like yours for decades. We have the skills, expertise, and knowledge to exceed your expectations. Our prototype tooling can cost you less money, arrive sooner, and be of higher quality than other machine shops in the area. Get a free quote to get started today.