What a Supplier Should Ask You on a Custom Profile Wire RFQ | ERQI WIRE

A custom profile wire enquiry gets one of two answers: a firm quote in two working days, or three rounds of “please confirm the following”. The difference is almost never the section itself — it is whether seven details arrived with the drawing. Here they are, with what each one actually changes in the number you get back.

1. The section drawing — not a sketch

A dimensioned drawing or a DXF. “Roughly a T, 4 mm” starts a guessing loop: every die is cut to a drawing, so an estimate becomes a die that cuts an estimate. If you only have a sample and no drawing, send the sample and say so — we measure and draw it for confirmation before tooling.

2. Tolerances — and where they matter

“As tight as possible” means the quote carries tolerance cost on every face. What works better: standard tolerance everywhere, plus a tight callout (±0.02 mm, say) on the face that mates. The quote drops, and the part still fits, because the tolerance sits where the function is.

3. Material — with the duty

“Stainless” spans 304, 316L and 430, which draw differently and price differently. Say the duty instead: potable water, chloride exposure, food contact, indoor dry. From the duty we can propose the grade; from “stainless” we can only guess and cover the guess with a wider price band.

4. Surface

Bright-drawn, bright-annealed, pickled or electropolished are four different operations. “Nice finish” is the detail that stalls quotes. If the surface matters, name the operation; if it does not, say “mill finish acceptable” — that sentence alone shortens the quote cycle. The differences are in bright vs annealed.

5. Quantity and rhythm

Two numbers: annual volume, and how it splits into deliveries. 1,000 kg shipped once, or 200 kg five times a year, produce different pass schedules and different prices. Buyers who only state the batch size get quotes optimised for the wrong rhythm.

6. Form of supply

Coil, spool, or cut lengths — and if cut, the length and whether deburring is required. Cut-and-deburr adds an operation; specifying it at RFQ prices it in honestly instead of discovering it on the invoice. Coil and spool details belong in the PO too: weight per coil, core diameter, splice policy.

7. The mating part

The one detail that prevents the most expensive failure. A photo or a sketch of what the wire slides into, presses against or rides in tells us which faces are functional — and that is where the tolerance budget goes. A section can measure to print and still not fit; the mating part is how we check before the die is cut.

What a good RFQ looks like

One email: drawing attached, then “316L, chloride duty, bright-annealed, 2,000 kg per year in four deliveries, spool 250 kg, butt welds not allowed, mating part photo attached, tight tolerance on the ramp face only.” Every one of the seven answers is in it, and the quote comes back firm.

What happens after the RFQ — die, first pulls, sample approval, batch — is in the drawing-to-sample walkthrough, and the service itself is on the custom profile wire page. Ready to send? The enquiry form takes attachments.