industrial, machinery and appliance spare parts / Buying guide
Spare parts minimum order quantity
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In this category the minimum is not a policy, it is arithmetic. A machined part costs mostly setup — programming, fixturing, first article — and that cost is the same whether you make one or fifty.
So one piece is always possible and rarely cheap per unit, and the useful question is not "what is the minimum" but "where does the per-unit price stop falling".
In this guide
How setup drives the number
- CNC machined: setup dominates below roughly 20 pieces. One piece is possible; ten is often barely more expensive in total.
- Injection moulded: tooling runs into the thousands of renminbi, so the practical floor is 500–1,000 unless you machine or print instead.
- Cast and machined: pattern plus machining setup, so a few hundred pieces before it competes.
- Sheet metal and laser cut: very low setup, small quantities genuinely economic.
- Rubber and silicone moulded: tooling again, and 500+ before it makes sense.
Structuring an order around setup
Order a life's worth, not a failure's worth. If the part fails annually and the machine has five years left, five pieces at one setup costs far less than five setups.
Group parts that share a process. Six different machined parts quoted together at one shop share fixturing time and programming effort, and the quote reflects it.
When to machine instead of mould
Below a few hundred pieces, machining a plastic part from solid stock is frequently cheaper than cutting a mould, and the part is often stronger. It will look different — machined marks instead of a moulded finish — which matters for a visible cover and not at all for an internal bush.
3D printing covers the same gap for complex geometry at single-digit quantities, with material properties that need checking against the application.
Questions & answers
Common questions
- What does a one-off machined part cost?
- Dominated by setup. Expect it to be several times the per-unit price at ten pieces, which is usually still far below the OEM's price for the same part.
- Should I order spares of a spare?
- Almost always. The second and third pieces of a machined part cost a fraction of the first, and the alternative is paying the setup again in two years.
- Can I get a quote without a drawing?
- For a budgetary figure, yes, from photographs and dimensions. For a firm price, a drawing or a sample is needed, and producing the drawing is part of the job.
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