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Browse our collection of articles, covering a wide range of topics and ideas.

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The potential of digital-first manufacturing

What I’ve come to realize is that in manufacturing, software’s cost is justified not just by improved quality of life, but as a way to convert variable costs into fixed costs. In our case, we’ve used software to automate office overheads. First and foremost, we automate quoting and manufacturability checks. We employ zero estimators, but we can quote more than 100,000 parts per week without straining our systems.

Metal fabricators prefer the wrong kind of customer

Shops often find themselves in a strategic cul-de-sac—extremely busy, falling behind, and yet somehow unable to grow. This circumstance is created not by their competitors, but indirectly by their approach to overhead management.

OSH Cut To Open A Second High-Tech Factory Near Cincinnati

OSH Cut CEO, Caleb Chamberlain, announced last week that their second U.S. factory is nearly operational and will be located in the Cincinnati metropolitan area.

Where to Get Sheet Metal Parts

There are tens of thousands of sheet metal shops scattered throughout the United States, each with a different combination of capabilities and services. Here is our review of a handful of shops that make the ordering experience quick and easy.

Latest Articles

Toward Perfect Metal Parts

We are on a mission to offer perfect sheet metal parts. For a high-mix sheet metal shop, that works out to be a tricky problem for many reasons, but this week we took a big step along the way.

What software automation means for custom fabrication

OSH Cut is different, but is it disruptive to the sheet metal manufacturing industry?

Why operating at scale lets metal fabricators ship faster

Queues are a fact of life, and it’s really a shame. It means as demand grows, customers have a worse experience. Nobody likes waiting in line. Yet a healthy backlog is in some ways desirable for manufacturers. It’s nice to know that you’ll keep your people busy for the next several weeks. It’s great for the shop, but less so for the customer. This uneasy tension between manufacturers and customers creates a sort of balance.

Steel Prices Increased Dramatically in 2021

Driven by high demand and persistent supply-chain issues, steel prices increased dramatically in 2021. Price increases have affected the entire supply-chain, from material rationing at mills, to long service center leads, and finally increases in product costs.

More Articles

Metal fabrication’s era of change

The FABRICATOR welcomes its new columnist, Caleb Chamberlain, CEO and co-founder of OSH Cut, a fab shop that, with automated quoting and order processing, exemplifies the metal manufacturing industry’s push toward digitization.

Laser tube cutting technology accessible to all

OSH Cut offers automated quoting for flat sheet cutting and bending. The fabricator now is diving into near-instant quoting for laser tube cutting.

JIT scheduling for a high-mix sheet metal fabrication shop

Balancing nesting efficiency against limited work-in-process (WIP) is an ongoing challenge for OSH Cut, a high-mix, on-demand sheet metal manufacturing service. So it developed in-house software that balances nesting efficiency against production needs.

Expanded Bending Support

Over the next several weeks, OSH Cut will be rolling out expanded bending capabilities. This will allow larger side and return flanges, as well as multiple bend radius options.

Four Reasons to use Sheet Metal in Your Design

You can do a lot with metal sheet and plate. Once you see what is possible, it may change everything about how you design. Here are four reasons you should consider using sheet metal for your next design.

How U.S. manufacturers can make reshoring painless

Manufacturing supply chains can’t be overhauled overnight. Even so, U.S. manufacturers that leverage software automation could make the process a little less painful.