Lab hardware is nearly
always a one-off.
That is the normal order here.
Research groups, instrument builders and startups do not order a hundred of anything. They need one mount, one fitting, one holder, and they need it before the experiment runs. No minimum order, and no explaining why the quantity is one.
Minimum order one part · Works from a sketch · Quotes next business day
Built to survive your purchasing system
The machining is rarely what delays a lab order. The paperwork is. You get a written quote itemised the way a purchasing office expects to see it, held long enough to clear an approval chain. Purchase orders from universities and research institutions are welcome, with no account to open and no minimum spend, and if your office needs a W-9 or a sole-source justification it comes back the same day. If a grant line has to be spent by a date, say so with the sketch and the schedule gets planned around it.
Hardware for labs and instruments
- Optical and instrument mounts
- Sample holders, stages and clamps
- Custom flanges and adapter plates
- Probe, sensor and detector housings
- Fluid fittings and manifold blocks
- Breadboard, rail and post hardware
- One-off replacement parts for existing rigs
- Modifications to equipment already in service
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The results get published. The parts do not.
University laboratories
Hardware machined for research groups at a major research university. The experiments are theirs to publish; they are not ours to describe.
Instrument builders
Parts for people building measurement and test equipment, usually before the design has settled.
Unpublished work stays quiet
If your hardware is attached to research that has not been published, an NDA sent with the RFQ comes back signed.
What labs actually send us, and what gets made
Lab hardware almost never starts as a finished drawing. It starts as something that does not exist yet, or something that broke. These are the shapes that request usually arrives in.
Materials
Stainless 316 where corrosion resistance matters. Aluminum 6061 for structure, mounts and plates. PTFE and PEEK for chemical and thermal work. Brass and copper. Delrin and UHMW. 17-4 PH where a part takes load.
Labs, research groups and instrument builders
Instrument and optical hardware
Mounts, stages and adapters that have to locate something precisely and then not move.
Sample handling and fixturing
Holders, clamps and jigs built around the specimen rather than the other way round.
Rig repair and modification
The part that broke, or the adapter that makes two pieces of equipment talk to each other.
Common questions
I only have a hand sketch. Is that enough?
Usually, yes. Put the critical dimensions on it and note what the part has to fit or locate against. We will ask about anything ambiguous rather than assume.
Can you work from a broken part with no drawing?
Yes. Measuring an existing component and reproducing it is regular work here, whether the original drawing is lost or never existed.
Do you take orders of one?
Yes. The minimum order has always been one part, and lab work is mostly ones.
Can you modify a commercial part instead of making one?
Often, and it is frequently cheaper. Send us both what you have and what it needs to do.
Will you quote in writing for a university purchase order?
Yes. Quotes come back the next business day in writing with the detail procurement usually asks for.
Can you suggest changes to make a part cheaper?
Yes, and we would rather do it before cutting. Tolerances applied everywhere and geometry that forces extra setups are the two most common costs, and both are usually easy to fix at the design stage.
Send the sketch, the model, or the part
Quotes come back the next business day. The minimum order is one, and you will be talking to the machinist who cuts it.