• Mechanical properties (strength, stiffness, impact resistance)
• Chemical resistance and compatibility
• Temperature resistance
• Environmental factors (UV exposure, moisture, etc.)
• Regulatory compliance (FDA approval, industry standards)
• Cost-effectiveness
• Design complexity and moldability
• Production volume and scalability
• Supplier support and material availability.

• Silicone rubber is not typically processed through traditional injection molding due to its curing process.
• However, it is commonly used in other manufacturing methods like compression molding and liquid injection molding.
• Silicone rubber is known for its temperature resistance, flexibility, and biocompatibility.

• TPU is a versatile elastomer with excellent flexibility, resilience, and abrasion resistance.
• It can be formulated to have different hardness levels, making it suitable for a wide range of applications.
• TPU is commonly used in injection molding for automotive parts, footwear, industrial components, and consumer goods.

• TPEs are a class of materials that combine the properties of rubber and thermoplastics.
• They offer flexibility, elasticity, and resilience similar to rubber.
• TPEs can be melted and re-melted multiple times without significant degradation.
• They are used in injection molding for applications that require cushioning, sealing, and flexibility.

• Versatility in properties and applications
• Wide range of material choices with different mechanical, chemical, and thermal properties
• Ease of processing and high production efficiency
• Good dimensional stability and repeatability
• Ability to recycle and reuse thermoplastic materials

• Polyethylene (PE)
• Polypropylene (PP)
• Polystyrene (PS)
• Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)
• Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS)
• Polycarbonate (PC)
• Nylon (Polyamide, PA)
• Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET)
• Polyoxymethylene (POM)

Before choosing the right metal 3D printing process and machine for a specific application, it's crucial to understand the essential metal additive manufacturing technologies and processes and how they operate.

The choice of the right process and machine for your application wholly depends on various factors, including specifications, budget, and product lifecycle.

Learn more about how Metal Additive Manufacturing works, including some of the most common metal 3D printing processes 

There is a wide range of materials available in Metal Additive Manufacturing (MAM), which is consistently growing. The most commonly used materials in MAM are stainless steel, aluminium, nickel, cobalt-chrome, and titanium alloys. Certain MAM equipment manufacturers provide customized specifications for these standard materials to use with their respective printer parameters. Explore the frequently used metals and metal filaments for 3D printing along with their advantages and disadvantages.

The effective build volume for HP Metal Jet17 is 430 x 309 x 140 mm. The volume meets the MPIF standard for stainless steel when using HP Metal Jet SS 316L and HP Metal Jet SS 17-4PH materials.

HP Metal Jet technology exemplifies metal binder jetting and draws on thirty years of experience in Thermal Inkjet (TIJ) to leverage multiple print bars, maximising productivity. Utilising dual integrated printheads, the technology applies a fluid binder with precision to fuse metal particles on the print bed. With a layer thickness ranging from 35 to 140 microns across a 1200 x 1200 dpi grid, the technology produces specific edge definition and fine detail.

The binder formulation eradicates the necessity for a secondary wax debinding phase, saving nearly 20 hours of process time when contrasted with metal injection molding16.The HP Metal Jet 3D Printing Solution is a digital-driven metal 3D printing technique for mass production, offering excellent calibre 3D components with mechanical characteristics that meet the most challenging industry norms, permitting novel designs to be unveiled. This solution is perfect for original equipment manufacturers and component suppliers in the industrial, healthcare, automotive, consumer, and other sectors seeking to expedite metal production, achieve greater design flexibility, and print superior metal components at scale efficiently.

Metal 3D printing, also known as metal additive manufacturing, was originally utilized for conceptual modeling and rapid prototyping. Metal 3D printing, also known as metal additive manufacturing, was originally utilized for conceptual modeling and rapid prototyping. However, in the past five years, there has been substantial growth in this process.

It is now employed in various industries for prototyping, tooling, and final part manufacturing. These sectors include but are not limited to industrial, healthcare, automotive, consumer, and sporting goods. Metal additive manufacturing has a wide range of applications in modern life, including in innovative developments.

Metal additive manufacturing is a disruptive technology that has revolutionised the approach to design and manufacturing. It is used by everyone from artists and designers to individuals, and small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as large corporations to produce a range of products. From consumer goods to large-scale operations, metal additive manufacturing is a permanent fixture in the industry.

We guarantee the safety and security of your parts through our confidentiality clauses embedded in our Terms of Sale. Nevertheless, we would be delighted to sign a separate NDA if your organisation deems it necessary. Kindly get in touch with our sales team to learn more about the specifics.

For orders that require international shipping, V1 will clear customs and cover any associated fees.

We are certified under ISO-9001, and our team of in-house engineers monitors the process to ensure that every part meets our rigorous quality standards.

We have assessed our manufacturing partners globally. Based on your location and component requirements, we can provide you with options to select a local or international manufacturer.

Customers in the US and EU can choose local or global manufacturing for CNC machined parts. Local orders are manufactured within your customs zones and offer shorter lead times (from 5 days) and faster delivery as there's no need for shipments to clear customs. Global orders generally result in longer lead times at a lower price. The best option will depend on the timing and requirements of your project.

V1 was founded by mechanical engineers and we have many more engineers and technicians on our team. Together we've written a lot of content on CNC machining over the years. You can find a selection of resources below, or you can go to our Knowledge V1 and filter on CNC Machining to read case studies, in-depth design guidelines and explanations of different surface finishes.

We've also written a complete engineering guide to CNC machining. Here you can learn how the many different types of mill and lathe work and the different materials available, so you can easily compare their advantages and limitations. You'll also learn the basic design rules for machining and the most common applications for each material and finish, so you can make the right choice every time.

We use algorithms to identify the best manufacturer in our network for your specific order, based on their proximity to you, their experience with similar parts and their current available capacity. This allows us to balance our customers' requirements for speed, cost and quality better than ever before.

The main costs associated with CNC machining can be grouped into machining time, start-up costs, material costs and feature costs. To reduce costs, you need to understand the impact of these factors on costs.

The best way to reduce machining time is to design features that can be machined quickly, for example by choosing the correct radii for inside corners, reducing cavity depth, increasing wall thickness, limiting thread length and designing holes with standard sizes.

Material costs can be reduced by considering the size of the blank required and the cost and machinability of the bulk material (softer alloys are faster to machine).

Set-up costs can be reduced by reducing the number of part rotations or repositioning required to complete the part, for example by separating geometries into multiple parts that can be assembled later.

Feature costs can be reduced by using tolerances only where absolutely necessary, removing all text and lettering and avoiding multiple surface finishes.

These tips can be found in more detail in our full guide to reducing the cost of CNC machined parts.

We use machine learning algorithms to calculate the exact cost of any machinable part directly from a CAD file, based on millions of CNC machining jobs we've completed. No more waiting for engineers to email you back, we can give you an accurate quote instantly (well, in about 5 seconds).

This means you always know the price in advance. Simply upload a CAD file to generate a quote: get an instant CNC machining quote. Our quotes are completely free, you just need to create an account so we can protect your IP.

It's so easy to use that we encourage mechanical engineers to use it all the time as they optimise their designs for cost. Whenever you've made a new design iteration, simply load both the old and the new design into our quoting tool and see if the price is different.

This technology also means that our manufacturing partners don't have to do their own machining quotes, which means less overhead for them. This makes the whole process less expensive, which translates into lower prices for our customers.

Deburring and edge breaking are standard procedures for all CNC machined parts. If there are any critical edges that need to be left sharp, these must be clearly identified in the technical drawings. Surfaces will be free from defects such as scratches, dents, stains, blemishes, hanging marks, minor defects. Surfaces indicated as critical (primary (a) side, as indicated on the technical drawing) will be free of mill steps and other marks. For the secondary (b) side, minor hanging marks and up to 2 minor defects are acceptable. A number of post-processing and finishing methods can be used to improve the surface roughness, visual properties and wear resistance of machined parts.

At V1 we offer CNC milling (3 axis, 3+2 axis and 5 axis) and turning. Milled parts can be machined up to 2000 x 1500 x 200 mm (78.7 x 59.0 x 7.8 inches) for 3/3+2 axis CNC milling. For 5-axis milling, the maximum part size is 650 x 650 x 300 mm (25.5 x 25.5 x 11.8 inches). The maximum diameter for CNC turning is 431 mm (17 inches), length 990 mm (39 inches). Recommended minimum part dimensions are approximately 0.39 x 0.39 x 0.39 inches (10 x 10 x 10mm) and the minimum feature dimension is 0.5mm.

We are limited to a maximum part size of 1000mm (39 inches) on our platform. If you need larger dimensions, you can make the request through your account manager.

We guarantee that our manufacturing partners meet ISO 2768 standards for all CNC machined parts. Parts machined in metal will follow ISO 2768-m (medium) or ISO 2768-f (fine). Plastic machined parts will be to 2768-m (medium). Geometric tolerances to ± 0004 in (0.010 mm) are possible but must be clearly stated on the technical drawings. We can achieve tighter tolerances on shafts up to H7 fits with manual quotation and occasionally tighter.

3D printing has historically been used as a rapid prototyping manufacturing method. With advances in post-processing capabilities and engineering-grade additive materials, 3D printing is often used to produce end-use parts. 

One of the biggest advantages of 3D printing is speed, or time to part. Other benefits include design flexibility, cost savings and production-quality parts without tooling investment. 

The maximum size of the part depends on the bounding box of the 3D printing machine used. With advances in large format printing capabilities, parts with build volumes of up to 31.5" x 15.7" x 19.7" for metal parts and up to 29" x 25" x 21" for plastic parts are possible. 

Although all file types are ultimately converted to STL (.stl) before printing, the recommended file type to upload is STEP (.stp/.step). SOLIDWORKS (.sldprt) and IGES (.igs/.iges) files. 

When choosing a 3D printing technology, the first step is to identify critical design requirements such as strength, temperature resistance, water resistance, aesthetics or durability. This will often help you determine whether metal or plastic 3D printing is required for your application. Check out this 3D printing material selection guide for further assistance on technology options to match your design requirements. 

The cost of 3D printing a part depends on a variety of factors, including design, material, process and post-print operations. Typically, post-printing operations account for the majority of part cost, especially if manual labour is involved. In general, laser powder bed sintering processes such as SLS and MJF are the most economical choice for end-use parts where cost is a key factor. 

If you're looking to replace powder coating with another finishing option, we recommend wet painting.

For a standard metal (such as aluminium 6061) powder coating will add approximately 15% to the production price. This can vary depending on the complexity of the job.

Powder coated parts typically last up to 20 years. Constant exposure to UV light and the outdoors, as well as general overuse, will cause the powder coating to deteriorate more quickly.

Powder coating makes metal parts resistant to outdoor conditions, including heat, cold damage and corrosion. You're likely to find powder coating on parts used in agricultural equipment, industrial machinery and heavy-duty automotive applications.

Powder coating provides a cost-effective, tough and durable finish to your parts, increasing their longevity and resistance to harsh environments. This makes it ideal for marine applications, for example.