Digital Fabrication Skills

Digital fabrication is the design and manufacturing workflow where digital data directly drives manufacturing equipment to form various parts. It ranges from designing a virtual model on CAD software, to inputting parameters and settings specific to an automated tool. The manufactured parts based on the tool path data collected sometimes requires a form of finishing to achieve their final properties and look before they’re ready to use.

3-Axis Milling

Using a CNC milling machine that spins the cutting tool against a stationary workpiece. It uses primarily square or rectangular bar stock to produce components. This may include rapid prototyping in a range of plastics, metals, and other materials, or precision machining at industry standards.

2-Axis Turning

Using a CNC lathe that rotates the workpiece against a cutting tool. It uses primarily round bar stock for machining components. A turret with tooling attached is programmed to move to the raw material and remove material to create the programmed result.

Metal Marking

Laser etching metal with a fiber laser machine is a quick and easy process. With the accuracy of a laser metal engraver, it is possible to produce precise marks with no clean up or additional finishing process needed.

Glass Etching

Etching glass is a delicate form of cutting into the glass to create an image, text, or pattern. It also uses a rim-drive rotary attachment for engraving cylinder items on a laser. This attachment can quickly and easily adjust to size for a wide variety of objects.

Laser-Cut Crafting

From rapid prototyping to creating aesthetic gifts, laser cutting is a great way for crafting products from thin sheet materials like acrylic, cardboard, wood, leather, and more.

2-D V-Carving

V-carving is the action of carving with a v-shaped bit to generate designs with varied width. The unique shape of v-bits create carves that are narrow at the deepest part of the carve (created by the tip of the bit) and wider at the top of the material.

2-D Profile Cutting

Profile cutting is used to cut around or along a vector line. Options provide the flexibility for cutting shapes out for more complex designs such as inexpensive furniture or prototypes.

3-D Carving

This process involves cutting a 3D model using two separate tool-paths. The first one is the 3D roughing, to clear away excess material when the part is too deep. The second tool-path is 3D finishing, which is used to machine the final pass on the finished 3D part.

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM)

Also known as “Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF)”, these 3D printers melt and extrude thermoplastic filament, which a print nozzle then deposits layer by layer in the build area. This type of 3D printing creates great concept models and quick prototyping of simple parts.

Stereolithography (SLA)

These 3D printers use a laser to cure liquid resin into hardened plastic in a process called photo-polymerization. This type of 3D printing creates parts with higher accuracy, smoother surface finish, and a range of functional applications. However, once the part is printed, the following post-processing steps are required;

• Washing - Removes sticky, excess resin from the surface by using isopropyl alcohol (IPA).

• Curing - Exposes the print to light and heat to help solidify its material properties in the photo-polymerization process.

Metal Profile Cutting

Whether you’re cutting aluminum, steel, or titanium, using a CNC plasma cutter provides great options for designing 2D vector shapes to be cut out. Whether it’s for engineering robotics, creating metal artwork, or designing custom brackets, CNC plasma cutting makes it easy to mass produce these kinds of projects from large metal plates.