Low-Volume Manufacturing

Made to order from 1 to 10,000 pieces on demand
One-on-one support service Response within 12 hours
In-house machine shop, 24/7 operations, Quick turnaround
Wide range of machining technicals. Tight tolerances, Finer surface finishes.
ISO 9001:2015 certified 100% part inspection

What Is Low-Volume Manufacuring?

Low-volume manufacturing is a rapid production method that precedes full-scale production, ranging from 100 to 00,000 units1. It does not require investment in expensive production tools, but reduces risk, allows design flexibility, shortens time-to-market, and creates opportunities for production cost savings. Additionally, it provides agility and quick turnaround for on-demand manufacturing in the supply chain.

Low-Volume Production

IDEAL providing high-quality custom parts that meet your design requirements and specifications via vast low-volume manufacturing services, including CNC Machining, Rapid Injection Molding, Vacuum Casting, Metal Casting, Sheet Metal Machining, Press Forging, Aluminum Extrusion, and more. We continue to enhance production management, process improvement, supply chain collaboration, and cost control to continuously improve customer satisfaction with fast, efficient, and competitive pricing.

IDEAL has more than ten years of experience in Small-Batch Manufacturing, an excellent team, and strong suppliers to meet all your small-batch manufacturing needs. Based on our many years of experience in small batch molding and excellent engineers, we will effectively execute all your projects involving small batch machining. This is due to the strong supply chain and advanced small-batch manufacturing equipment for different manufacturing technologies.

You can rest assured that we will ensure the wholesale price is lower than that of our peers, strictly control the product quality standards, assist customers in optimizing the design, select the appropriate CNC processing technology, reduce costs, and achieve rapid mass production, to ensure that you will finally receive economic and high-precision products.

Why Choose IDEAL for Low Volume Production?

A Wide Range of Low Volume Manufacturing Process Options

ISO 9001 Certified Quality Control

Leverage the Complete Resources of Our Chinese Supply Chain

No Minimum Order Quantities

Flexible Order Processing with Fast DFM Response

Advantages of Low-Volume Production

01

More flexible design iterations
Creating low volume manufacturing allows for more efficient verification of design, engineering and manufacturability.
02

Short turnaround times and low costs
Tooling is cost-effective for low volume manufacturers to handle orders quickly and flexibly, with no minimum order quantities.
03

Closing the gap to production
Low volume trial runs bridge the gap between prototype and production, timely identifying and resolving any issues before moving to mass production.
04

Reduced time to market
Low volume manufacturing services optimize the link between production to supply chain and consumer, providing rapid time-to-market for new products.

Have any Questions or Suggestions? We would love to help you! Talk to us!

Our Low-Volume Manufacturing Capabilities

Let IDEAL Handle All Your Custom Manufacturing Needs

IDEAL is committed to providing high-quality custom parts that strictly meet your design requirements and specifications via vast low-volume manufacturing services, including CNC machining, Rapid Injection Molding, Vacuum Casting, Metal Casting, Sheet Metal, Press Forging, Aluminum Extrusion, and more. We continue to enhance production management, process improvement, supply chain collaboration, and cost control to continuously improve customer satisfaction with fast, efficient, and competitive pricing.

Rapid Injection Molding

We combine traditional injection mold machining methods with rapid mold manufacturing, ranging from voluminous test parts to on-demand molded parts. We handle the transition from small to large production runs.
Aluminum Extrusion

Aluminum extrusion is suitable for manufacturing aluminium parts or profiles with consistent cross-sectional shape, usually using aluminum alloy 6061 and 6063 material extrusion. It also supplements CNC post-processing, including drilling, tapping, etc
Urethane Vacuum Casting

Silicone molds are made using 3D printed or CNC-machined masters to produce high-quality plastic-like polyurethane parts in low-volume for functional testing and pre-production evaluation.
Low-Volume CNC Machining

Small batch production of aluminum prototypes is usually one of the effective ways to reduce costs and time. IDEAL receives aluminum and steel prototype quote every day in dozens of countries around the world.
It is a fact that the price of one prsts machining is higher than that of small batch machining. Compared with Europe, and American rapid prototype companies, the same quality, IDEAL will be 40%-50% is cost saving.
Sheet Metal Fabrication

Our fabrication capabilities include stainless steel, steel, aluminum, brass, red brass, galvanized materials, and fabrication of frames, equipment panels, enclosures, chassis, brackets, and more.
We cater to sheet metal fabrication, from low-volume prototypes to high-volume production.
Rapid Metal Casting

We can provide pressure die-casting for aluminum, magnesium, and zinc, alongside investment casting for steel and copper. Additionally, we offer post-CNC casting finishing and flexible production methods for low-volume metal casting project requirements.

When is Low-Volume Manufacturing Used?

There are many reasons to shift focus to low-volume production. In some cases, the aim is to improve manufacturing efficiency while other times it's merely a necessity of bespoke industries. Improvements take the form of better production testing, reduced tooling, minimization of cost, and shifts toward flexible manufacturing. These are described in more detail below.

Bridge Development and High-Volume Production

Low-volume production is often used to bridge the gap between product development/ prototyping and full-scale production. It is a low-risk method of ironing out manufacturing or assembly issues that didn't get picked up during the initial prototyping phase. From the low-volume starting point, production can gradually be ramped up and the manufacturing processes optimized along the way. As an added benefit, this all happens before sinking significant sums into expensive tooling.
Gauge Market Success

Another reason to implement low-volume production is to gauge the market’s response to a new product. Instead of investing significant amounts on expensive high-volume tooling for the mere hope of success, small numbers of products can be put out first to gauge how consumers respond. These products can be released in a controlled manner to a select group specifically for testing or they may be released into the market and their commercial success used to gauge market adoption.
Cost Reduction

Some products can only be profitable if manufactured in large numbers using automated manufacturing processes. However, this requires a significant upfront capital investment, making it a financially risky proposition. Low-volume production technologies require very little up-front investment and can be used to test the product’s popularity before committing to full-scale production. If the market is relatively small, then the manufacturer may not need to move beyond low-volume production at all.

Custom Products

The demand for customized products has risen dramatically in recent decades. Tailor-made products designed specifically to fit a customer's preferences will always be more desirable than one-size-fits-all items. However, by their very nature, custom products cannot reasonably be manufactured using High-Volume Production techniques. Instead, Low-Volume Production techniques offer far more flexibility and customizability.

Request Your Free 5-Axis CNC Machining Quote Today

Our improved algorithm decreases metal 5-Axis CNC Machining quotation times by up to 90%. Most quotes are delivered within 24 hrs. and usually much less, depending on project details.

Your customer support partner will contact you directly to ensure you've received and understand all aspects of your quotation and to answer any questions you may have.

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Low-Volume Maufacturing Cases

Low-volume manufacturing is the best pathway to move from prototype to production smoothly, and provides on-demand production with the ability to quickly deliver custom parts.

My experience working with Fay was great.Clear communication that put me at ease. Very easy to order these parts. Great quality and werecieved exactly what we were expecting - Followed the engineered drawings precisely. Theproduct arrived well packaged, and precisely to spec.

Thank you very much for your consideration and problem solving. lt says a lot about your companyand 1feel comfortable working with you moving forward.

Chris

R&D Manager
IDEAL was able to deliver an accurate and quick service for high quality CNC parts. We inspected the parts, everything was within tolerance in terms of dimensions, and the surface finish on the machined faces is really good. IDEAL has always given us exactly what we needed.

Dennis J.

Engineer
Partnering with IDEAL has transformed our production process. Their precision, reliability, and commitment toquality have been game-changers for us. We've seen a remarkable improvement in efficiency and productquality, allowing us to meet our customers' demands better than ever. IDEAL's team truly understands oulneeds and consistently delivers beyond our expectations.

Jennie Elp.

Senior Mechanical Designer