What actually happens after you send an RFQ: the eight stages, the day counts, the four inspection gates, and exactly how your money is protected — including the three rules that do not depend on trusting us.
This is the whole process, in order, with the day counts we hold ourselves to. Nothing on this page is a guess about what usually happens — it is how we run an order.
A PDF, a step file, a photograph with three dimensions written on it, or the model code off the side of the tool you are running now. If you only have a used tool, send it — we can reverse-engineer from the worn geometry and tell you what it originally was.
Before anything is quoted we check that the tool you asked for is the tool your operation needs. Substrate, coating, geometry, tolerance class, and whether a stock item would do the job for less. Roughly one enquiry in four changes shape at this stage, usually to something cheaper.
Your drawing goes to a shortlist drawn from plants that have already passed our seven vetting checks and have the right machines for your geometry — a plant that is excellent at inserts is not automatically excellent at 20×D drills. Single-sourcing a quote is how buyers end up paying a 40% premium without knowing it.
Firm unit price, lead time, MOQ, the tolerance and coating we are committing to, the inspection method we will use, and the assumption list. If a price depends on something you have not told us, it is written down as an assumption rather than buried.
The cheapest thing you will ever buy from us is the sample. It goes on your machine, in your material, with your operators, and you measure parts per edge. A catalogue claim cannot survive a real shift, and neither can a bad tool.
Your approval of the sample becomes the written specification for the bulk order. From here, nothing about the tool changes without your written agreement — not the grade, not the coating thickness, not the grinding tolerance.
Incoming material, first article, coating, and pre-shipment sampling. Each gate has a named instrument and a numeric threshold. You receive the measured values, not a tick-box form. Detail below.
Nothing leaves the plant until you have read the inspection report and released the balance. Export documentation, HS code and packing list come with it. We tell you the truth about lead time, including when it has slipped.
You do not need a complete technical package to start. Send whatever you have and we will tell you what is missing:
Almost every sourcing agent will tell you they inspect. The useful question is what they measure, with what, and when. These are the four points where a batch can still be fixed, and where we stop it if it cannot.
The carbide rod is checked before it is ground, not after the tools are made. Composition is measured on a spectrometer and compared against the grade the quotation promised: cobalt percentage, WC content, and the cubic carbide additions that distinguish a P-class substrate from a K-class one. This is the gate that catches grade substitution at the point where it is still cheap to fix.
One completed tool from the run is measured in full and the readings are sent to you before the plant is allowed to continue. Diameter, corner geometry, flute form, shank tolerance, overall length, and runout. A first article that is approved is the specification the rest of the batch has to match.
Coating is the most common silent short-cut in the industry, because a tool specified at 3 µm of AlTiN frequently arrives with 1.5 µm and looks identical in the hand. Thickness is measured by ball-crater and adhesion by Rockwell indentation. If the reading is short, the batch is re-coated before it is packed.
The gate most buyers do not have. Instead of checking one first article and trusting the rest, samples are drawn across the whole batch — including the last boxes packed, which is where dimension drift shows up — and runout is re-checked on a sample of finished tools. Every box is traceable to the batch it came from.
Payment structure is where a bad sourcing relationship hurts most, and where good intentions are worth nothing without a written structure. These are the arrangements we actually use.
| Situation | Typical structure | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Sample or trial order — 5–10 pieces | 100% prepaid | Small amount, short cycle, and it buys you the only data that matters: parts per edge on your own machine. |
| First bulk order, standard terms | 30% deposit / 70% after you approve the inspection report | The industry default, and the structure we recommend for a first order. The plant carries the risk of the batch until you have seen the measurements. |
| First bulk order, with third-party inspection | 30% / 70% against an independent report (SGS, BV, TÜV or your own inspector) | Adds a cost line and a few days. Worth it for a first order above roughly $20,000, or any order where a failure would stop your production. |
| Special tooling or a non-standard first article | 40% on order / 30% on first-article approval / 30% before shipment | A custom form tool or a special insert has real engineering cost before any saleable piece exists. Milestones are fairer to both sides than pushing it all onto one. |
| Larger orders | Irrevocable L/C at sight, or a platform escrow arrangement | Escrow is safer and slower, and it costs more. Be aware that many genuinely good plants refuse platform escrow because of the cash-flow lag — a plant refusing it is not automatically a red flag. |
| Repeat orders with an established supplier | 30/70, 45/55, or open account after three clean shipments | Terms loosen with a payment history. That is the real reward for getting the first order right rather than negotiating the first order hard. |
Three rules that matter more than any payment term. First: the beneficiary name on the proforma invoice must match the business licence name of the plant we quoted — if it does not, stop. Second: bank details are confirmed once, in writing, and a later change is treated as fraud until verified on a live call. Third: nothing ships before you release it. Those three rules prevent nearly every loss we have seen in this market, and none of them depend on trusting us.
Every manufacturing process fails somewhere. What matters to you is whether the failure is caught before you pay for it, and whether the cost of the failure lands on you or on the plant. These are the four real failure modes in this industry — not hypothetical ones.
| What goes wrong | How it looks | How we catch it | What happens next |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grade substitution | You ordered a P25-class substrate; a cheaper, lower-cobalt grade arrives. Almost impossible to spot by looking, and it only shows up as premature edge failure weeks later. | Spectrometer on the delivered batch, at Gate 1 and again on a retained sample. | The batch does not ship. The plant re-makes it at its own cost, or we renegotiate the price openly and you decide. Because the balance has not been released, the leverage is yours, not ours. |
| Coating thinner than specified | 3 µm of AlTiN ordered, 1.5 µm delivered. The tool wears out 40% earlier and there is nothing to see. | Ball-crater (Calotest) measurement, at Gate 3. | Re-coating, or a remake if the substrate was affected. This is the single most common quiet short-cut in this market and the reason we measure it on every batch rather than on the first one. |
| Runout out of tolerance | The purchase order says 0.005 mm at the shank; the batch measures 0.02 mm. The tool will cut, just badly and for less time than it should. | Tool presetter or a V-block and dial indicator, on a sample from every production lot. | Rejection and re-grinding. Runout is a grinding problem, not a material one, so it is fixable — but only if it is caught before shipping. |
| Dimension drift across the batch | The first 200 pieces measure perfectly. The last 800 sit at the edge of the tolerance band, or just outside it. A first-article-only QC process misses this completely, which is why most buyers get caught by it. | AQL sampling drawn across the entire batch, including the final cartons packed, at Gate 4. | Measured box by box and traced back to the production lot. The offending boxes are re-made. Nothing ships mixed. |
There is a version of this page that lists only strengths. We have written the honest version instead, because a buyer who understands where the limits are makes a better decision than one who has been told everything is fine. If you want to know the weakest part of our position, ask us directly and you will get a straight answer.
Our margin sits inside the quoted unit price. There is no retainer and no separate introduction fee, and we do not ask for money before you have seen a quotation. If you want the cost structure broken down in writing, ask for it at the RFQ stage and you will get it. We would rather be transparent than lose the order to a guess.
One price and one invoice for the tooling, at the unit price we quoted you. If you would prefer to contract directly with the plant instead, tell us at the RFQ stage — that is a different arrangement with different economics, and we will set it out clearly before anything is ordered rather than after.
Yes, and we will introduce you. Be clear about what changes if you do. You keep the relationship; you lose the inspection gate, the third quote, and the leverage of three plants bidding against each other on the same drawing. Most buyers who try direct come back for the second order, once they have had one batch they could not verify.
It does not ship. You get the measurements and the choice: rework, remake, or a price adjustment you agree to. Because the balance is released against your approval of the inspection report, the plant is carrying the risk of that batch until you are satisfied — not you.
You do. Your drawing goes only to the plants quoting you, and nowhere else. We sign your NDA if you have one, and we will ask a plant to sign one where the part is sensitive. We do not pass your drawings to other buyers and we do not let a plant quote your part to your competitor.
Yes to both, and we will tell you honestly when a visit is not worth the airfare. For most first orders, the money is better spent on a third-party inspection report at the plant and a proper sample run on your own machine. For a large or long-term order, a visit is worth doing, and we will set it up.
That is the route we recommend for every first order. 5–10 pieces, a slightly higher unit price, and the only test that predicts anything: tool life on your own machine. We will tell you what to measure so the result is meaningful rather than a feeling.
Then we will say so, because a tool that is dimensionally correct and an application that is wrong are different problems and only one of them is ours to fix. Send us the cutting parameters — speed, feed, depth of cut, coolant, machine — and we will check the application before we sell you a second batch of the same thing.
Send one part. You will get a technical read, three factory-matched options and one firm number within 48 hours — then the cheapest tool you will ever buy from us: 5–10 pieces on your own machine.