OEM Custom Hardware Development
Most customers arrive with a photo, a competitor's part or a rough sketch rather than a drawing. This is the route from that to plated production parts, and where the time and the cost actually sit.
The Route in 6 Stages
What Goes Wrong and What We Do About It
The buyer knows what the part must do but not how to specify it.
We ask for the webbing or tab width, the material, the finish and the quantity. Four answers are usually enough to quote a catalogue style.
There is no drawing and no 3D file, and paying a design studio to make one stalls the project.
Our mould team prepares the 3D design free of charge from a photo or a physical sample, and confirms it with you before any steel is cut.
Mould cost and mould time are what kill small custom programmes.
Customising an existing catalogue style needs no new mould and carries no mould fee. A genuinely new shape needs about 7 days of tooling.
An approval based on a photo of a sample always goes wrong.
Samples ship in 1 to 3 days and are free when the style is already in stock, with the customer paying only the courier.
The first production batch often does not match the sample.
The approved sample stays on the floor as the first article reference, and the plating colour plate is kept for the repeat order.
A hardware delay stops the bag factory, not just the hardware order.
Stock styles ship in 2 to 10 days, custom runs in 25 to 35 days, and production on custom pullers and sliders runs 7 to 15 days after sample approval.
Categories This Covers
OEM Custom Hardware Development Questions
Answers to the questions buyers ask before they order.
Where Does This Process Usually Lose Time
Sample approval. Approving from a photograph instead of the physical part is what causes a second sample round, and that costs more days than tooling does.
What Do You Need From Me to Start
The part type, the inner width, the material, the finish and the quantity per colour. If there is no drawing, a photo or a physical sample is enough and our mould team prepares the 3D design free of charge.
How Fast Can the First Order Ship
Stock goods can leave within one day, normal goods take 2 to 10 days, general orders are quoted at 15 to 20 days and fully customised goods at 25 to 35 days.
Start With OEM Custom Hardware Development
Send what you have, even if it is only a photograph of a part you already buy. The first reply will tell you whether an existing catalogue style can be modified, which is the cheapest and fastest route.