Quality Inspection to Chinese Foundries, Metal Casting Suppliers, Manufacturers

There are many Chinese foundries, metal casting suppliers and manufacturers who are supplying their iron and steel casting products to overseas, and more and more buyers are establishing the cooperation with them. However, it is still a difficult issue to inspect these foundries to check if they are capable and suitable for producing your products.

Herein, I just talk about this issue based on my years working experiences in Dandong Foundry in China.

First way, the best way is visiting your Chinese foundries.

The visiting will be the best and most direct method to inspect the equipments and administration of your suppliers. However, this way is also the most expensive method since China is very large, and many Chinese foundries located in the different places.

Second way, asking some questions related with the quality and technical issues.

Such as some questions about the casting process, physical properties, chemical components, quality control, heat treatment, defects, painting, delivery and other aspects. From their answers, you should be able to learn about their understanding to the production for your products. Of course, look over the photos to their products, casting foundries, machining and inspection equipments will be very basic and necessary.

Third way, searching the news and information from internet.

From Google, you could try to search their company name to check if there is any cheating, defraud, infringement or other bad news related with them. This is the cheapest way, but sometimes, you can not find enough information from internet.

Fourth way, making samples and starting the production from small batches.

If you think the foundry can make the castings for you, you could pay some prepayment for the patterns to ask them to make several samples.

However, there are two problems in this way. One is for the prepayment. Some buyer may want to refuse to pay the prepayment for the patterns, and want the supplier to make the samples free of charge. This is unfair to the foundries since they usually need to pay full payment when they pick up the patterns from the pattern workshops (most of Chinese foundries can not or do not make the patterns in-house). Therefore, 30% to 50% prepayment for the tooling should be reasonable for both buyers and suppliers.

Another problem is for the failed approval to the samples. If the samples have not passed the approval, then how to solve the prepayment problem? Personally, I think the foundries should refund full payment if their samples can not meet the requirements on the drawings or in the requirements, but the buyers should give more chances and time to supplier to allow them to remake the samples. After all, making samples is not an easy thing.

As I know, the most of Chinese foundries have a good reputation and credit, this is also the reason for many buyers have transferred their products to China. However, according to many years experiences in China, there are many difficult issues in quotations, samples, production and delivery. Both buyers and Chinese foundries and suppliers should show their patience and sincerity to their cooperation.

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