Solving Machining Challenges Through Creative and Innovative Thinking

Manufacturing is almost never a straight and easy path—and that’s one of the reasons it’s so exciting! 

Each part brings with it a unique set of complexities and requirements that, more often than not, require creative thinking to solve, resolve or address.

At Polyhistor, we love a good challenge. As a team of curious engineers, we’re always thinking outside the box to improve our capabilities and service offerings, not only on the engineering side of our business but in our manufacturing, machining and assembly processes as well.

Here’s a look at some of our creative machining techniques that enable us to deliver better products to our customers while improving cost and lead time.

Polyhistor’s Creative and Innovative Machining Techniques

Turning various geometries with minimal setup. When producing a high volume of parts, a lathe can in some cases offer better performance and efficiency than milling. However, the limitation of typical lathes is that they can only produce circular geometries…or do they? 

With our multi-function CNC machines with live tooling, we have the flexibility to turn square parts and other geometries as well. This equipment also enables hands-off machining, eliminating the need for costly setup. Our customers save time and money on the shop floor without sacrificing design integrity or precision.

Vacuum workholding. When using traditional clamping techniques to hold a workpiece in place, it’s hard to work around some of the part edges as you get closer to the numerous clamps required to hold the part securely.

To minimize this issue, we installed a vacuum table system to our milling machine so we don’t have to use clamps at all. 

Vacuum table workholding significantly reduces set-up time, run time, and part distortion when we’re removing material. 

And it allows for quick part changes, thus maximizing machine up time during large production runs.

Leveraging hybrid manufacturing. We view additive and subtractive manufacturing as having both traditional standalone capabilities as well as seldom considered complementary capabilities.

By leveraging hybrid manufacturing, it’s possible to bring the best of both worlds together. Our team can 3D print a part and machine it afterward as a secondary finishing operation. Alternatively, we can stop a 3D printing process midstream, insert metal parts, then resume printing. If you’re unsure which manufacturing method to use in your particular stage of product development, we’ll be glad to offer expert advice.

Let Polyhistor Solve Your Machining Challenges 

The team at Polyhistor is dedicated to solving inefficiencies through creative and innovative thinking. By streamlining our machining processes and coming up with new techniques, we pass the benefits right along to our customers, always striving for better products, lower costs, and shorter lead times. 
If you’re looking for a shop that will consciously find ways to improve your part, end your search with us. Polyhistor has an awesome team of engineers and machinists ready to put on their thinking caps and brainstorm an innovative manufacturing strategy for you. Request a quote and let’s get started!