Custom stamping fails in the RFQ, not on the press. Buyers who send incomplete drawings, vague tolerances, or the wrong material spec get slow quotes, wrong samples, and production delays. custom metal stamping parts from Dongguan Fortuna Metals are built to customer drawings — here's how to write an RFQ that gets you the right part, at the right price, on the first try.

Start With the Drawing, Not the Description

A paragraph describing a bracket is not a drawing. A production-ready RFQ includes a 2D drawing with dimensions, tolerances, material grade, thickness, and finish — or a 3D model the factory can open directly. Fortuna's engineers work from CAD/CAM programming, so clean files move straight into tooling design; messy files bounce back for clarification and cost you days. If your drawing is still a sketch, say so — the factory can help, but it needs to know. When ordering custom metal stamping parts, remember the drawing is the specification — everything else is commentary.

Tolerances: Tight Where It Matters, Loose Where It Doesn't

Progressive-die stamping holds ±0.01mm to ±0.05mm, and the CNC side reaches ±0.005mm — but specifying the tightest tolerance on every feature doubles your cost for no benefit. Mark critical dimensions tight (mating surfaces, contact points, hole positions) and let the rest float. This discipline keeps custom metal stamping parts affordable without sacrificing the dimensions that matter. The factory's 85 high-speed punching machines run 0.1 to 3 seconds per stroke; loose non-critical tolerances keep that speed — and your unit price — where you want it.

Material and Finish: State It Up Front

Copper, aluminium, stainless steel, iron — the material changes everything: tooling, press settings, plating, and price. State the grade and thickness in the RFQ, plus the finish: gold, nickel, tin or silver plating, partial plating, zinc or chrome. Plating choices affect lead time, so deciding them after the quote means requoting. If your application needs RoHS or REACH compliance, say it at the start — the factory's material and surface treatment already comply, and third-party testing through SGS and CTI is available for automotive programs.

Tooling: The Real Cost Conversation

Ordering custom metal stamping parts means custom tooling, and tooling is the biggest line in a first order. Fortuna runs 45 mold technicians and 5 mold design engineers, with the fastest mold lead time at 15 days and 12 sets of continuous molds per month — but a complex progressive die still takes time to build right. Ask for the tooling cost separately from the unit price, confirm the mold life (the shop averages 5 million shots per progressive mold), and clarify who owns the tool. A mold that survives 5 million shots amortizes to almost nothing per part at volume.

Prototypes Before Production

Never skip the prototype run. Fortuna's prototype lead time is 7–12 days — cheap insurance against a drawing error that would otherwise surface in ten thousand parts. Test the prototype in your assembly, check the mating parts, verify the plating, and only then release production. First-piece inspection at the factory catches manufacturing drift; your own prototype check catches design drift. Both matter.

Volume: Where the Price Drops

High-volume orders see unit costs drop by at least 60% — the progressive-die economy at work. But volume only helps if the part is right: ordering 100,000 pieces of a wrong part is worse than ordering 1,000 of a right one. Sequence it: prototype, pilot batch, volume. The factory's IATF 16949 quality system, five core tools (SPC, MSA, FMEA, APQP, PPAP), and CCD full inspection keep the volume run consistent with the approved sample — but the sequence is your responsibility. For custom metal stamping parts at scale, that consistency is the whole point of the certification.

Getting Started

Send the drawing, state the material and finish, mark the critical tolerances, ask for tooling and unit pricing separately, prototype first, then scale. custom metal stamping parts ordered this way arrive right the first time — and the second order is always cheaper than the first.