Castings to Machined Parts

Solving a Supply Chain Problem for Casting

Even before the challenges brough on by supply chain disruptions, Dean and Andrew Sonquist of Plas-Tech Tooling have been working with companies who are converting cast parts and components into machined ones. The current supply chain disruption is more far reaching and causing serious problems for a significant number of manufacturers across the country. Dean explains that they have had several companies recently contact them to see if it was feasible to convert several cast parts into machined parts to fill some orders.

What The Podcast Covers

The podcast explains how the process works and more importantly what factors make the process financially beneficial to a company. There are several considerations one has to look at before making the jump to machined parts over cast parts. Aesthetics, weight, and costs are primary reasons to go or not go with conversions.

What to Ask - How to Work with Your Production Maching Source

The program also explains the type of questions you need to be asking a production machining company to see if the process is the right move as well as the importance of good communications between companies so that the goals, requirements, and concerns are all covered before production begins. The process is fairly quick to set up and some prototypes can be created with a few days which means the conversion can be done relatively quickly. Some buyers are taking the opportunity to make modifications to the parts because changing a machined part is more cost effective than changing the mold for a cast part.


Many Thanks to Dean and Andrew Sonquist | Plas-Tech Tooling | www.plastechtooling.com