Capabilities
Manufacturing Processes
Start with the process. Each page covers what the process is good for, what buyers need to specify, what to ask suppliers, and which manufacturers in the network provide it.
Welding & Joining
Welding
Welding covers everything from a two-piece bracket to a multi-ton structural weldment. The right shop depends less on th…
TIG Welding
TIG welding — gas tungsten arc welding — is the process buyers reach for when weld appearance, control and cleanliness m…
MIG Welding
MIG welding — gas metal arc welding — is the workhorse of production fabrication. Higher deposition rates and easier aut…
Fabrication & Cutting
Metal Fabrication
Metal fabrication is the broad category covering cutting, forming, welding and assembling metal into a finished part. Mo…
Stainless Steel Fabrication
Stainless fabrication carries requirements that ordinary steel work does not: separated tooling to avoid carbon contamin…
Aluminum Fabrication
Aluminum rewards shops that understand it. Higher thermal conductivity, distortion behavior and alloy-specific weldabili…
Sheet Metal Fabrication
Sheet metal fabrication turns flat stock into formed, fastened and finished parts. It is the backbone of enclosures, pan…
Laser Cutting
Laser cutting produces clean profiles from flat stock quickly and repeatably. For most sheet-gauge work it is the fastes…
Waterjet Cutting
Abrasive waterjet cuts without a heat-affected zone, which makes it the practical choice for thick plate, hardened mater…
Machining
CNC Machining
CNC machining removes material from stock to produce a part. It is the default answer for tight-tolerance metal parts at…
Precision Machining
"Precision" is not a tolerance band — it is a discipline. Precision machining suppliers distinguish themselves through p…
Prototyping
Prototyping is where sourcing decisions quietly get made. A prototype supplier who cannot scale forces a change later; o…
Short-Run Manufacturing
Short-run work is unattractive to high-volume plants and ideal for smaller shops with fast changeover. Finding the right…
Additive Manufacturing
Industrial additive manufacturing has moved beyond prototypes into tooling, fixtures and qualified end-use parts — but o…
Molding & Tooling
Injection Molding
Injection molding is a tooling-first process: most of the engineering effort and cost lands before the first good part. …
Tool and Die
Tool and die shops build and maintain the tooling that production depends on. They also solve the problem most buyers ev…
Casting
Casting makes economic sense when geometry is complex and volume supports pattern or die cost. The process choice — sand…
Forging
Forging is chosen when mechanical properties matter: the grain flow produced by deformation delivers strength that casti…
Stamping
Stamping delivers the lowest piece price for high-volume sheet metal parts once die cost is amortized. The economics liv…
Assembly & Finishing
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