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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

Fabrication software: from floppy disks to the cloud

Fabricators used to buy software in a box. Today, they turn to the cloud. And in the near future, AI tools will change how we interact with computers in ways impossible to foresee.

Digitally driven custom manufacturing is still new

Software has allowed complex organizations to manage production more efficiently at scale. Offline programming and simulation make programming equipment more efficient and predictable. On the balance, it’s safe to say that today’s manufacturers are far more productive than they were just a few decades ago.

Designing sheet metal parts in CAD—for reality

Just because you can draw it in CAD doesn’t mean you can make it. Columnist Caleb Chamberlain imagines a world where this isn’t the case.

Cutting Waste Through On-Demand Fabrication

Successful companies are very good at cutting the waste. Two huge causes of waste in an organization are overproductions and excess inventory. Utilizing on-demand metal fabrication can significantly reduce the amount of inventory a company needs to have on-hand and streamline other production processes. Technology and software-enabled shops are paving the way to revolutionize the industry.

Brothers Aim to Transform the Fabrication Industry

Caleb and Jacom Chamberlain, both engineers, needed precision sheet metal parts cut and bent, but found it difficult to find vendors to do the job. So they started OSH Cut to make it easier for themselves and others. OSH Cut now offers precision blank cutting and bending services, shipping all over the US.

Are Steel Prices Returning to Normal?

In the aftermath of COVID, steel prices exploded, peaking 2.5x higher than before the pandemic. But starting at the end of 2021, prices started falling again. After a brief spike at the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, we are approaching levels not seen since 2020.