How to Reduce Costs Through Design

When the cutting tool mills out the material from 1 to 2, the red shadow area can not be cut due to the cutting tool is circular, the radius will be left. Normally, we will use the smallest cutting tool for corners in case assembly interference with other parts, the cutting tool size depends on the depth of the corner, normally, the depth of the corner can not exceed Diax10(because cutting tool is easy to break such as using a 0.6mm cutting tool for 15mm depth).

For saving cost, it’s suggested to add a radius at sharp internal corners if sharp edge is not necessary

For bottom corners, it’s suggested to keep sharp edges since the bottom of cutting tools is flat so that sharp corners can be milled. The costs and the machining time may increase if it’s a radius.

When the sharp corner is necessary, we can use EDM(Electric Discharge Machining) process to remove radiuses, but it will leave EDM marks such as the picture shows, also the cost and the leadtime will be increased.