Design for Manufacturability in Aerospace Manufacturing and Beyond

In any manufacturing field, it’s important to be as efficient and cost-effective as possible. Nobody has money, time, or resources to burn, and so manufacturers must ensure that their process eliminates any dead wood that would cost the company dollars, manpower, time, or inventory. No place is this more important than in high-cost, high-yield fields like aerospace manufacturing and design. That’s why many aerospace manufacturers practice what’s known as Design For Manufacturability (DFM).

DFM is basically the principle of designing a product in such a way as to make it easy and cost-effective to manufacture. It’s one thing to design a part to make sure that it will do its job well and efficiently when it is completed, but it’s another thing entirely to ensure that the part is also easy and cost-effective to produce. A perfectly functional part that’s expensive or difficult to manufacture won’t provide the same return on investment as a part that’s equally functional, but takes less time or costs less to produce.

Of course, the aerospace industry isn’t the only place that uses DFM. It’s present in almost every field of engineering, manufacturing, and development. But in fields like aerospace, where dollar values of end products can be extremely high, and the precision and function of parts can be particularly important, DFM is especially fundamental. Proper use of DFM principles can avoid key issues in development and production, as well as saving time and money in the long run. There are a lot of DFM ideas that are taken into account by designers, but one important one is the material that the product is made out of, and specifically how that material responds to various manufacturing processes such as tooling. Questions are asked, such as, “Is existing tooling sufficient?” or “Is custom tooling needed?”

Proper DFM will also assess a part’s tolerance for post-fabrication processes. Many parts may need heat treatment, plating, or deburring once they’ve finished production. Good use of DFM will acknowledge this need, and work to create a part that responds well to post-fabrication treatments, as well as identifying what sorts of equipment will work best to treat the part. Knowing the proper piece of deburring machinery to use can save time, guesswork, and trouble down the road.

At CDMC we provide deburring solutions for every field, including aerospace & defense. We’re well aware of the importance of DFM, and we put our expertise in our client’s hands, so that you can use our knowledge to help design the best solution for your manufacturing needs. We want to be your deburring machine headquarters, and we’re always ready to help our customers to create custom solutions to any deburring challenge.