Guides / For Shops

Eleven Titanium RFQs a Shop Should Decline, and How to Decline Them

Not every enquiry is worth a quote. Some cost you a day. Some cost you a month after you win them.

Here are eleven, split by what they actually tell you, with the ones that are fixable marked as fixable. Most are.

Red flags in the enquiry itself

1. No model and no drawing. A photograph, a sketch or a part number alone is not something you can price. It is either very early or the buyer is collecting rates rather than quotes. Fixable: ask for a STEP file and a PDF. If neither exists, the project is not ready for you.

2. No quantity, or “please quote 1, 10, 100 and 1000”. Sometimes legitimate for a production planning exercise. Often it means nobody has decided anything. Fixable: ask which number is real this year, and quote that one properly plus one bracket.

3. No date. In titanium the material lead time is half the answer. An enquiry with no date cannot be quoted honestly on delivery. Fixable: ask. If the answer is “as soon as possible” with no business reason behind it, downgrade the priority.

4. The grade contradicts the application. Grade 5 called out on a seawater part where Grade 2 would do, or Grade 2 on something carrying real load. Fixable, and this is the enquiry you want. Explaining it makes their part cheaper or safer, and makes you the shop they call next.

5. A tight block tolerance on every dimension. ±0.01 mm applied to the whole drawing usually means a default in the CAD template rather than a requirement. Fixable: ask which features actually matter. You will often turn an unquotable part into a straightforward one.

Red flags about the part

6. A wall thinner than 1 mm standing tall. Above roughly a 15 to 1 height to thickness ratio you are into bespoke fixturing, several light passes and a real risk of scrapping parts at the last operation. Sometimes fixable: propose a thicker wall, a stiffening rib or a different stock form. If the geometry is fixed and you have not done it before, this is not the part to learn on.

7. Tolerances you cannot prove. If the drawing carries ±0.01 mm and your inspection room cannot demonstrate it, accepting the job means accepting somebody else’s judgement of your parts. Not fixable by optimism. Decline, or quote with an outside inspection line in it.

8. A certificate requirement you do not have a process for. Heat lot traceability is a documented process with witnessed transfer marking and segregated storage, not a folder. A first titanium job that also needs full traceability on an implant part is two new things at once. Fixable over time, not on this order.

9. An unusual grade or size, quoted on a short lead time. Grade 7, Grade 12, an ELI heat in an odd diameter, thick Grade 5 plate. The machining may be simple and the material may still be eight weeks out. Fixable: confirm stock before you quote, not after.

Red flags about the buyer

10. No questions, no engagement, instant pressure on price. An enquiry that arrives complete, demands a number by tomorrow and responds to every technical question with “just quote your best price” is optimising for one variable. You will not win it at a margin, and if you do win it you will be held to that price on every reorder.

11. Reluctance to say who the end use is. Some of this is legitimate confidentiality and an NDA solves it. Some of it is a buyer who knows the application will change your price, usually because it brings certification requirements with it. Fixable: offer an NDA. If the answer is still evasive, price the risk in.

How to decline so it pays you back

Declining badly costs you the customer. Declining well often wins you the next part.

Say no quickly. A week of silence followed by a no is worse than a no in a day. Their project has a date.

Give the reason. “We cannot hold ±0.01 mm on a 1 mm wall at that height with the fixturing we have” is credible and specific. “It is not a good fit for us” is not.

Suggest what would make it a yes. A thicker wall, a looser general tolerance, a different grade, a longer lead time, a smaller first batch. Now the buyer has a route back to you.

Say what you do want. “This one is outside our envelope, but Grade 5 parts up to 400 mm with ±0.02 mm are our normal work, please send those.” You have turned a no into a targeting instruction.

Buyers keep a short mental list of suppliers whose yes means something. The fastest way onto that list is a well-reasoned no.

The two minute triage

Before you spend an hour on a quote:

Check	Pass
Model and drawing present	Yes
Grade named, or service conditions described	Yes
Quantity and date real	Yes
Tightest tolerance inside what you can prove	Yes
Part envelope plus fixturing fits your machine	Yes
Stock available in your window	Confirmed, not assumed
Certificates inside a process you already run	Yes
Buyer answers technical questions	Yes

Eight yes answers means quote it properly. Five or six means one email will probably fix it. Three means it is not an enquiry yet.

Where pre-read enquiries come from

Every RFQ we introduce has been read against the shortlist criteria on the how we match page first, and you see an anonymous preview before you pay for anything. That does not remove your own triage. It removes the first three rows of it.

Register your shop if titanium is in your current production.

Frequently asked questions

Keep reading

• Six Ways a Machine Shop Finds Titanium Work, and What Each One Costs
• The Ten Questions a Titanium Buyer Is Really Asking Your Shop