CNC turned components for the automotive industry: what a series supplier has to deliver

In automotive, the part is the easy half. The documentation, the capability evidence and the ability to hold both for seven years are what separate a supplier who wins the tender from one who only quotes it.

A drawing for an automotive turned part rarely looks harder than one from general engineering. What is different is everything around it. The customer is not buying a batch; they are buying a process that will still produce the same part after seven years of call-offs, tool changes and shift handovers.

What comes with the part

• PPAP. The submission package that proves the process can make the part. We handle it up to level 5.
• IMDS. Every substance in the component entered into the industry material database. Without it the part cannot be built into a vehicle.
• Process FMEA and control plan. Not paperwork for its own sake: they define what is measured, how often, and what happens when it drifts.
• Capability studies. Cm, Cmk on the machine; Cp, Cpk on the process. A characteristic without capability evidence is an unproven characteristic.
• Traceability. From the mill certificate of the bar to the box on the pallet.

Where 100% inspection earns its place

On critical characteristics we sort every piece by camera rather than by sample. It costs cycle time and it is worth it: a single escaped part in an automotive assembly line stops the line, and the cost of that is not comparable to the cost of sorting.

The commercial side

Automotive work is series work. Programming, tooling and setting cost the same whether the order is 5,000 pieces or 500,000, so the price per part is set almost entirely by the annual volume and the call-off pattern. A supplier who quotes without asking about both is guessing.

We machine automotive components from Ø 2 to Ø 52 mm under IATF 16949, ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 — shafts, pins, pivot pins, bushings, connectors and sensor housings. More on automotive CNC components.