For any company that designs new products, communicating its designs outside of its walls is always a source of anxiety. Outsiders who get proprietary information can use it to become a competitor.

This is the main reason why Jeff Smith, president of Triad Solutions LLC (Moorpark, California), decided to do some of his own machining in-house. The company made this transition without hiring a machinist, without making a large capital investment and without undergoing a big learning curve. Even though the shop had no machining experience, it has been able to machine its own parts quickly and efficiently, thanks, in large part, to the intuitiveness and accessibility of CNC technology today.

"We realized the most important thing for us to do is maintain complete control of certain critical parts that have earned us a lot of business," Mr. Smith explains. "We didn't want to reveal the details to competitors or vendors."

Triad is a developer of cryogenic test dewars, which are metal containers made like a vacuum bottle that allow infrared sensors and arrays to be tested at very cold temperatures. The shop machines the dewars' vacuum interfaces for electrical circuits, as well as internal components such as cold pedestals, heat-switch components, light baffles, device sockets and heater enclosures. It also prototypes parts for new designs. The company's customer base includes high-tech aerospace companies that work with infrared sensors and universities that require these devices to research materials.

Mr. Smith knew that he would have to find a CAM software program that would allow direct-to-NC-programming from 3D designs. At the time, the company was happy using TurboCAD, a program developed by IMSI (Novato, California) that allows the user to manipulate AutoCAD drawings. So when the time came, Mr. Smith inquired about the company's CAM capability.

With this new CAM capability, the shop uses a benchtop three-axis CNC milling machine from Taig (Chandler, Arizona).

After implementing TurboCADCAM, the company started producing parts within a couple of weeks. During that time, employees had to learn the specifics about formatting the software to work with the CNC machine. Then they had to optimize the machining steps to produce quality parts, which Mr. Smith says took time to perfect. "We produced many a scrap part in the process because of our ignorance in several areas, mainly with machine setup and proper settings for the material being machined," he says.

The company is now capable of machining 20 percent of its own parts that it couldn't machine without the CAM application. The company did not have to hire any more people to add to its five-person staff, nor did it have to purchase more than one CNC machine.

Although it didn't take the staff long to get up to speed with the new software, Mr. Smith explains that the company isn't working with complex parts, exotic materials or tight tolerances. The shop mainly machines aluminum, and tolerances are normally in the range of 0.005 inch.

Every job at the shop begins with the design of a product requested by a customer, typically in the form of written specifications. The shop translates the specifications into a 3D model that it reviews with the customer prior to fabrication.

Now that Triad has been machining parts for a while, it has discovered a range of benefits that go beyond protecting its own designs. Not only does the software aid in keeping company costs down, it also has improved Triad's customer service. For example, job turnaround time has improved because instead of sending a design out to be machined, it's possible to machine a part in one day. "We have literally talked about the design of a part with a customer and delivered the finished part all in the same day," Mr. Smith explains. "It takes maybe half an hour to set up the material on the machine, and then it's ready to go."