Everything you need before you send a part.

Written by the same engineers who price and produce the parts — not generic advice, but the specific calls that move cost and lead time on a real drawing.

1 guidesCustomer storiesBy our engineers
Guide

Design for Manufacturing (DFM): the practical guide

The tolerance, wall-thickness and fixturing calls that quietly double your machining cost — and how to avoid them.

GuideComing soon

A working guide to machining tolerances

What ±0.05mm actually costs you, and when you can safely relax it.

GuideComing soon

Choosing a material and a process

How engineers match a part's job to a process and material before pricing it.

ReferenceComing soon

Manufacturing glossary

Plain-English definitions for the terms that show up on every quote.

ReferenceComing soon

Certifications & quality

ISO 9001:2015 and how OperGo runs quality control on every order.

GuideComing soon

Designing for injection molding: draft, walls and gates

Why a 0.5° draft angle and a rib at 60% of wall thickness decide whether your mold ejects cleanly or sinks.

GuideComing soon

Sheet metal design rules that avoid a second tooling pass

Bend radius, K-factor and hole-to-edge distance — the calls that decide whether a part forms in one hit or cracks.

GuideComing soon

FDM vs SLA vs SLS: picking the right print for the job

When a $30 FDM print is the right call, and when only SLS will survive being an actual functional part.

GuideComing soon

Anodizing, powder coat or paint: choosing a finish

What each finish actually protects against, and the surface roughness your drawing should call out.

GuideComing soon

GD&T for people who didn't grow up reading drawings

What a flatness or true-position callout actually forces a machinist to hold — and what it costs you.

GuideComing soon

From one prototype to a production run without a redesign

The design decisions made at unit #1 that quietly block you from scaling to 10,000 — and how to avoid them.

GuideComing soon

When to switch from CNC or 3D printing to a mold

The volume and unit-cost math that tells you exactly which order should trigger a tooling investment.

GuideComing soon

What actually drives the price of a machined part

Setup time, cycle time, tool changes and material — the real cost stack behind every CNC quote.

GuideComing soon

What actually drives manufacturing lead time

Why one part ships in 5 days and a near-identical one takes 3 weeks — and the drawing choices that close the gap.

GuideComing soon

Quality control: CMM reports, FAI and what to ask for

What a first article inspection actually checks, and when you need one versus a standard dimensional report.

GuideComing soon

Fasteners and heat-set inserts in machined & molded parts

Where to place a threaded insert so it doesn't crack the boss around it, and when to tap instead.

GuideComing soon

Retail-ready packaging: what 'private label' actually requires

The specs a box, insert and label need before a product can leave the dock under your brand.

GuideComing soon

Food-grade manufacturing: what actually needs certifying

FDA and EU 10/2011 compliance for food-contact parts, and the traceability paperwork that comes with every batch.

GuideComing soon

Manufacturing precision components at EV hardware scale

The tolerance and volume ramp EV and energy hardware needs from a manufacturing partner — grounded in what a leading EV-charging manufacturer runs through OperGo.

GuideComing soon

Scaling a SKU catalog without building a factory

How retail brands run over a billion SKU combinations through one manufacturing partner instead of a warehouse of tooling.

ReferenceComing soon

The RFQ checklist: what to send for an accurate quote

The seven details that decide whether your first quote is accurate or gets revised twice.

ReferenceComing soon

Surface roughness (Ra) by process, at a glance

Typical Ra values for as-machined, bead-blasted and polished surfaces — so you specify a finish instead of guessing.

ReferenceComing soon

Metric fastener & thread standards, at a glance

ISO thread callouts, drill sizes and standard insert dimensions in one lookup table.

ReferenceComing soon

Incoterms for hardware brands importing a production run

What FOB, EXW and DDP actually shift onto you — and which one to ask for on your next PO.

Customer stories

A designer switch brand delegates 100% of its production to OperGo →

+1.5 billion SKU combinations, and millions of euros in revenue on a catalog they never built a factory to support.

A single Amazon SKU, sold at 4x production cost →

Laser cutting to palletizing and labelling, run end to end by OperGo for one wall-mounted bike rack.

All customer stories →

Food-grade HDPE, a 3D-printed part that raced the Tour de France, and 3D metrology validation.

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