Precision engineering is now one of the most widely used techniques in manufacturing, responsible for manufacturing the majority of everyday items, alongside specialist and precision components used in engines, pumps, and machinery.
What Is Precision Engineering?
Precision engineering refers to any manufacturing process that involves a high level of detail or precision. It is therefore used for intricate components designed to carry out a specific function, usually within a larger machine or application. The components produced by precision engineering techniques are extremely diverse, but they have in common a set of demanding or tight production tolerances, and a low tolerance for deviation across production runs.
Precision engineered parts must be accurate and repeatable, which is why the advent of computer-controlled (CNC) machinery and computer aided design (CAD) has enabled an explosion of precision engineered parts across every manufacturing sector.
The marriage of CAD design and CNC production has enabled a greater level of complexity in precision engineered components, with tight tolerances that can be repeated over production cycles of hundreds or thousands of identical parts.
The Main Benefits Of Precision Engineering In Manufacturing
- Faster production cycles – complex parts and components can now be created in a shorter time, using accurate, energy-efficient CNC machinery.
- Longer component lifespan – The more precise a component’s design, the less wear and tear it will experience as it interacts with other parts within the application. This generates less friction and waste heat and means that precision engineered parts last longer, being less prone to sudden breakage, and needing to be replaced less frequently.
- Reduced production costs – modern precision engineering methods actually reduce the cost of components that used to be very pricey to create using manual methods and machinery. Combined with faster production and longer product life spans, a lower cost per unit reduces the overall cost of manufacturing and makes complex components more economically viable in a wider range of applications.
- Replicability – precision engineering is configured to produce complicated components to the same configuration over lengthy production runs. With a very low margin for error, even a slight deviation from the design may require the component to be rejected, so modern CNC machines are designed to be exceptionally accurate, with near-precise replicability over large production runs. This reduces wastage and costs, and enables applications to run more smoothly, with fewer errors and less energy expenditure.
Precision Engineering In Daily Life
Precision engineering methods and technologies are used in almost everything we use and everything we do including a wide range of consumer products, including:
- Refrigerators and freezers
- Air-conditioning systems
- Dishwashers, tumble dryers, washing machines, and other consumer white goods
- Green energy devices, including wind turbines
- DIY tools, including drills, planes, lawnmowers etc
- Stationary engines, domestic boilers, and generators
- Cars, vans, and lorries – precision engineered components are used throughout consumer vehicles
- Garden and street furniture, handrails, bicycle racks
- Computers and consumer electronics
- Jewellery and cutlery
Find Out More
At Hone-All Precision, we create precision engineered products for high-performance industrial applications, with customers drawn from the aerospace, automotive, hydraulic engineering, and medical equipment manufacturing sectors. We use a selection of advanced CNC machines and computer-aided design methods to manufacture unique components that minimise wear and optimise efficiency.
To find out more, or to discuss a project with one of our engineering team, please get in touch today by phone or email.
