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> CNC milling is incredibly wasteful compared to some more complex (and more manual) processes, but it's also much simpler and faster, and this saves you way mo
by panick21_ 3y ago
> CNC milling is incredibly wasteful compared to some more complex (and more manual) processes, but it's also much simpler and faster, and this saves you way more money across the board than you lose over wasted material
Interestingly SpaceX opted for the exact opposite. Instead of having huge CNC milling machines like CNC has. SpaceX just manually welds in stringers into the tank.
And they were able to build the rockets far cheaper and arguably simpler. So it really depends what the manual process is and why you are doing it.
- bumby 3y agoThis and the parent comment has to constricted view of QA in aerospace. Yes, manufacturing quality is a big part. And yes, it’s possible that new manufacturing processes like additive manufacturing can streamline the QA. But the part being missed is all the downstream QA. Those welds still need to be inspected. Any soldering needs to be inspected to the J-STD. The materials still need to be kept in an environmentally controlled environment. The materials still need samples kept, for possibly decades, in a similar manner in case something is found wrong later. All this requires administrative overhead like a chain of custody etc. That isn’t cheap.