Today’s buyers are always looking for a way to improve their ROI with all purchases. Here are some tips you can use to maximize your ROI when purchasing an investment casting.
Ask Design Questions
Be sure to ask every design question you can think of as early as possible in the design process. This reduces time spent making time-consuming and potentially costly changes down the road. Having back and forth communication is all part of getting the part you want the way you want. Just be sure it’s done at the design phase. Castings have standard tolerance limits and tighter tolerances may need to be machined. Making parts with corner fillets reduce the time and cost of tooling.
Visit the Facility
If there’s any way you can do it, make arrangements to visit the facility of your investment casting vendor. Taking the time to watch the investment casting process will help you understand the many steps taken to produce parts. It also gives you the opportunity to discuss your requirements while onsite which can lead to significant cost reductions by reducing the design time. This also allows you get to know who you are dealing and a sense of the quality you will receive.
Think Longer Term
As with anything you buy you can decrease your costs and improve your ROI if you buy volume. Economy of scale also applies to investment casting. If possible order enough parts for a quarter’s worth (or more) of your production requirements. The cost savings to you will far outweigh the cost of you stocking the parts. Blanket orders with release dates allows both parties to make the best use of their resources.
Combine Your Parts
Flexibility is one of the great features of investment casting. A simple way to increase your ROI is to cast two parts together. This is preferable and much more cost-effective than taking two separate parts and welding them together.
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