Answered at length, because you are an engineer.

STEP (AP214 or AP242), IGES, Parasolid and native SolidWorks are all fine, and we have a seat of most things for opening them. Send a dimensioned PDF drawing alongside the model wherever one exists: the model tells us how to cut the part, but only the drawing tells us which of the four hundred dimensions on it are the ones that matter. If you work model-based with PMI embedded, say so and we will read the annotations from the model instead. We have also quoted from a photograph of a broken part on a workbench, from a hand sketch on squared paper, and from a 1974 microfilm drawing this year, so do not let the absence of CAD stop you ringing. What genuinely speeds a quote up is telling us the quantity, the material, whether there is a finish or heat treatment specified, and the date you need it on your shelf rather than the date you would like it to ship.

Routinely ±0.005 mm on a machined feature in the five-axis cell, and ±0.002 mm on ground or lapped surfaces where the drawing calls for it and the part is designed to allow it. Bores to H7 are ordinary work; H6 is achievable and we will price it as such. Those are working figures we will commit to across a batch, not the best result we have ever recorded on one part on a warm afternoon. If a drawing asks for tighter than ±0.002 mm we will tell you plainly that it is outside what we will stand behind, and we will usually give you the name of a specialist grinder who can. The reason to ask a supplier this question is not to collect the smallest number — anyone will say five microns — but to find out whether they will put it in writing and then measure it.

Aluminium 6082, 7075 and cast tooling plate; stainless 303, 316 and 17-4PH; carbon and alloy steels including EN24T and EN36; Inconel 625 and 718; titanium Ti-6Al-4V; brass and phosphor bronze; and engineering plastics including PEEK, Delrin and Torlon where the medical work calls for them. Nickel alloys and titanium are a substantial part of what we do rather than an occasional favour, which matters because they are unforgiving of a shop that only cuts them now and again — tool life, coolant strategy and feed rates on Inconel are learned rather than looked up. We buy from UK stockists with full material certification and traceability, and the certs travel with the parts. If your drawing specifies a material we do not hold a relationship for, we will source it and tell you what it adds to the lead time before you commit.

Ten to fifteen working days from order for a first article, fifteen to twenty for a production batch, and five to eight for repeat parts running from a proven programme. Those are the times we quote and the times we hit — 99.2% of 340 deliveries in 2025 arrived on or before the promised date. We deliberately keep one of the five-axis machines under-loaded to absorb expedite work, so a genuine aircraft-on-ground or line-down job can go on within 48 to 72 hours at a 40% premium. We charge for that rather than pretending it is free, because a supplier who says yes to every emergency without a price is a supplier who is quietly late for somebody else. If we are going to miss a date, you will hear it from us before you notice it, which our customers mention more often than any other single thing.

Yes, and for a good proportion of our aerospace work they are contractual. We produce full AS9102 first-article inspection reports — forms 1, 2 and 3 — from our Zeiss CMM in the temperature-controlled inspection room, priced from £420 depending on the number of characteristics on the drawing. For non-aerospace work we issue a dimensional report against the balloon numbers as standard at no extra charge, and Priya sends measured values rather than a pass-or-fail column. That distinction sounds pedantic and is not: a customer who can see a bore drifting from 24.004 to 24.011 across a batch can act on it at part 180 instead of discovering it at goods-in. Reports are issued as PDF, and as a CSV of the measured data if your quality system wants to ingest it.

Yes, and roughly a fifth of what leaves the building is a single part. Some of that is genuine prototype work for people developing a product, some is a replacement for something obsolete where the original supplier is long gone, and a fair amount is fixturing and tooling for other manufacturers. There is a £180 minimum set-up charge on any job because the programming, workholding and proving cost the same whether we make one part or fifty, so a one-off usually lands somewhere between £340 and £900 depending on complexity and material. We would rather quote you honestly for one part than lose the relationship that follows it — two of our largest customers arrived with a single component.

Every drawing that arrives is treated as confidential from the moment it lands, without you having to ask and without a document being signed first. We will sign your NDA if your process requires one and we do not require you to sign ours. Drawings and models are held on UK servers, backed up nightly, and are never shared with a subcontractor without your written agreement — and we tell you which operations we subcontract before you place an order rather than after. We do not undertake ITAR-controlled work, and we will say so immediately rather than letting an enquiry run. We also do not photograph customer parts for our own marketing without asking, which is why the work shown on this site is described rather than pictured.

Unit 4, Parkwood Works, Hollowgate, Sheffield S3 8QT — about ten minutes from junction 34 of the M1 and a fifteen-minute walk from Sheffield station. Yes, come. We would rather you did, and customers who audit us tend to become customers who stay. The shop floor, the CMM room and the goods-in area are all open to visitors with reasonable notice, and Ruth or Danny will walk you round rather than handing you to a salesperson. Goods-in hours are Monday to Thursday 07:00 to 17:30 and Friday 07:00 to 13:00; we can take a booked delivery outside those hours if it is arranged in advance. There are two visitor spaces in the yard and there is safety footwear in the office in most sizes.