A 316L stainless steel instrument panel covers the prismatic work: pockets, slots, faces and threaded holes produced to drawing rather than to a catalogue description. This page covers 316L stainless steel instrument panel produced for aerospace: CNC milling with adaptive roughing, finish passes and on-machine verification. Every unit is supplied to drawing rather than to a catalogue description, and wall thickness of 2 mm is the starting point rather than the limit.
In practice the difficulty is rarely the nominal size. ±0.02 mm is held on the features that locate the part in the assembly, and the process is set up so that the first piece and the five hundredth measure the same way.
Specification
| Process | Cnc milling with adaptive roughing, finish passes and on-machine verification |
|---|---|
| Material / configuration | 316L stainless steel |
| Size / capacity | wall thickness of 2 mm |
| Tolerance | ±0.02 mm |
| Surface finish | as machined, bead blasted or anodised |
| Application | instrument panel for aerospace |
| Inspection | Dimensional report, material certificate, first article report on request |
| Lead time | 7–15 working days for samples, 3–4 weeks for production |
| Minimum order | 1 piece for prototypes, from 50 pieces for production pricing |
Manufacturing process
Production begins with a drawing and material review. Stock is certified, the operation sequence is fixed, and CNC milling with adaptive roughing, finish passes and on-machine verification is carried out on equipment maintained to hold ±0.02 mm over a full shift, not just on a first piece.
Material is purchased against a certificate and checked on receipt, so the composition is known before any cutting starts. Work in progress is identified by part number and operation, and the finished parts are deburred, cleaned and protected before they leave the machine area.
Typical applications
Most of the work supplied in this category falls into the following examples.
- Drive and control enclosures.
- Robot joint mounting brackets.
- Hydraulic manifold blocks.
- Instrument housings and panels.
- Camera and sensor mounts.
Quality control and documentation
Inspection is not a final formality. Dimensions are checked during the cycle and again at the end, so drift is corrected while there is still stock to remove.
Material certificates to EN 10204 3.1, dimensional reports and first article inspection reports are issued with the shipment where the application requires them. Calibration dates and measurement uncertainty are recorded alongside every result.
Ordering, lead time and packaging
Orders start from a single piece. Samples are quoted from the 3D model, and production pricing follows once quantity, finishing and inspection are agreed.
Frequently asked questions
How thin can walls be milled?
Down to about 0.5 mm in aluminium with a finishing strategy that leaves support material until the last pass. Thinner sections usually need EDM or wire cutting instead.
Is flatness guaranteed across large faces?
Flatness within 0.05 mm over 300 mm is routine with a facing pass and a stress-relieved blank. Tighter values need grinding or a defined inspection method in the drawing.
Do you keep tooling and programmes for repeat orders?
Fixtures, tool lists and verified CAM programmes are retained for the life of the part number, so a repeat release runs on the same setup as the first batch without a new proving run.
Send the drawing or the 3D model for a quotation. Include material, quantity, tolerance and finish, and a detailed quote with lead time is returned within one working day.
