What Are Machine Ready Blanks?

If you are looking for ways to improve your machining processes and become more lean, here are ten things about Machine-Ready Blanks you should consider:

1. Machine-Ready Blanks are Lean – Blanks streamline processes, improve efficiency, save time, and free up resources
2. Eliminate Material Prep – Machine-Ready Blanks arrive on your receiving dock individually packaged, deburred, clean, and ready to load directly into your CNC machine center
3. Reduce Set Up Time – Machine-Ready Blanks are consistent blank-to-blank, streamlining fixturing and clamping
4. Shorten Cycle Time – Machine-Ready Blanks can reduce overall cycle time by 25%, chip-to-chip
5. Eliminate Materials Bottlenecks – No more time waiting for materials to be prepped, and the time saved can be redirected towards other high value work
6. Reduce Flat Material Part Movement During CNC Machining – Residual stress introduced at the mill is relieved, which helps keep parts flat during and after machining
7. Reduce Scrap – Starting with precision, near net size blanks improves quality and reduces scrap
8. Receive Materials Just-In-Time – TCI Precision Metals can produce, warehouse, and ship Machine-Ready Blanks based on your production schedule
9. Increase Shop Throughput – Overall you will produce more parts faster, without adding overhead, by starting the job with Machine-Ready Blanks
10. Improve Quality – Starting with near net size, precision Machine-Ready Blanks improves quality of part and quality of process

Watch the Video

Watch the following time lapsed video to see how much time you can save by starting your next job with machine-ready materials.

“Machine-ready blanks cost more than oversized stock.”

You’d be surprised. TCI is a master distributor with a wide partnership of material suppliers. We are adding value to low cost material, and passing those savings on to you. Couple that with your decreased cycle times, and the TCO simply can’t be beat. The time saved in your shop almost always exceeds any increase in “raw” material cost, especially on production runs.

“Blanks aren’t useful on my horizontal mill, or when I vise.”

Any time saved is increased productivity and gained throughput. Calculate how much time you spend squaring up your parts (facing, squaring, parting-off) and multiply that by your quantity. Even if it’s just seconds per part, it can come out to hours or days by the end of the job. That time saved can be spent working on your next job.

“It takes too long to get blanks that are squared up. It’s much faster to get oversized stock.”

With TCI stocking material on our floor, we are able to get parts on your dock in the same time-frame as your current supplier, even with our squaring and flattening processes. Better yet, place a blanket order, and we’ll keep stock on the shelf for JIT (Just in Time) releases, when you need them.