What a shop has to show before it machines your part
We are a trading company: we buy the machining and sell you the finished part, so the shop that cuts it is our choice and our responsibility. Rather than ask you to trust that choice, we publish the bar. These nine checks are applied on the floor before a shop joins the network, and again per job, not once at sign-up.
None of this is exotic. It is the set of questions that separates a shop which machines difficult alloys as ordinary work from one that would like to try. The reason to write it down is that it lets you check our work: if you want to know what the shop running your order showed us, ask, and we will tell you against this list.
- 01
Evidence in the alloy, not a claim about it
What we ask for. Two parts already shipped in the same alloy class as your job — drawing (redacted is fine), photographs, and what made them difficult.
Every shop says it can cut titanium. Two real parts separate the ones that do it weekly from the ones that did it once.
- 02
A machine list with numbers on it
What we ask for. Makes, models, travels, spindle speed and power, bar capacity, and which machines have through-spindle coolant and at what pressure.
It tells us whether your part fits the envelope and whether the shop can actually cool the cut. A list without pressures is a brochure.
- 03
High-pressure coolant on the machine that will run the work
What we ask for. For titanium and nickel alloy jobs: 70 bar or better through the tool, on the specific machine, with tool holders that pass coolant.
In these alloys coolant pressure governs tool life and chip control more than insert grade does. A shop without it will be slow, and the price will reflect it later rather than now.
- 04
Inspection equipment that is theirs and is calibrated
What we ask for. CMM or equivalent in-house, plus hardness and surface testers where the work needs them. Current calibration certificates, traceable to a national standard.
Sub-contracted inspection adds days and dilutes accountability. Out-of-date calibration makes every report arguable.
- 05
A quality system we can check ourselves
What we ask for. ISO 9001 or a documented equivalent, with the certificate number and the certifying body — so we can verify it on the public register rather than take a PDF at face value.
Certification registers are public. A shop that is genuinely certified hands this over without hesitation.
- 06
Material traceability that survives the job
What we ask for. Ability to segregate material by heat, record which bar produced which parts, and supply EN 10204 3.1 certificates against the finished pieces.
Traceability cannot be reconstructed after the fact. Either the shop worked that way from the first cut or the documentation is a guess.
- 07
Confidentiality in writing, before any drawing moves
What we ask for. A signed confidentiality undertaking covering your files, accepted before we release anything.
Your drawing is your design. It goes to a shop only after that shop has put its name to keeping it.
- 08
A named technical contact who answers
What we ask for. One person, reachable by email, able to answer a process question in English inside one business day.
Most schedule failures start as an unanswered question. A shop with no technical contact will be managed by guesswork.
- 09
Honesty about capacity
What we ask for. Current load, a lead time they will put in writing, and a plain statement of what they will not take on.
A shop that accepts everything is the one that delivers late. Being told "not this one" early is worth more than an optimistic yes.
What this standard does not claim
It is a qualification bar, not a guarantee, and it is worth being precise about the difference.
Passing these checks means a shop has the equipment, the systems and the evidence to be trusted with your part. It does not mean nothing will go wrong. Machining difficult alloys is a process with real failure modes, and any supplier who tells you otherwise is selling something.
What we do commit to is the consequence: we measure every order against your drawing before packing, and if parts come back non-conforming you raise it with us rather than with a factory in another time zone, and they are reworked or remade. That is the whole argument for buying the finished part from a trading company that manages the shop, and it is the part we are accountable for.
We hold no manufacturing certifications ourselves and we own no machines. What we hold is the responsibility for who machines your part, the inspection before it ships and the claim if it is wrong.
Using the standard
If you are buying
Send the drawing. When the order runs, ask what the shop running it evidenced against this list. That question is the point of publishing it.
If you are a machine shop
Read the list honestly before registering. If you clear seven of nine and are straight about the other two, that is a floor visit worth arranging.
Questions about the standard itself: , answered within 24 business hours.