Guides / Choosing a Supplier

Your Drawing Is the Asset: Sending It Out Without Losing Control

July 30, 2026

Ceramic parts often sit inside equipment that took years to develop. The part itself may be a ring, but the ring tells a reader what the chamber does, what the plasma chemistry is or what the instrument measures.

That is worth a few minutes of thought before an RFQ goes to eight shops.

Decide what is actually sensitive

Three categories, and they need different handling:

Not sensitive. A bushing, a spacer, a standoff, a simple insulator. Send it. An NDA here costs a week and protects nothing.

Geometry sensitive. The shape reveals a mechanism, a flow path or a novel configuration. Stage the information: quote from an envelope and a feature list first, release the full drawing when you are down to one or two shops.

Context sensitive. The part is ordinary but the application is not. Strip the drawing. Remove the assembly reference, the project name, the customer name and anything in the title block that names the programme. Shops do not need it to quote.

Stage the information

A good quoting sequence looks like this:

1. Budget round. Envelope, grade, quantity, the two or three critical tolerances, the finish requirement. Enough for a price range.
2. Firm round. Full drawing to the shortlisted shops, under NDA if the part warrants one.
3. Order. Full pack, including inspection requirements and packing specification.

Most buyers do the opposite: full drawing to everyone at round one, which maximises exposure at the point where the least value is being created.

When an NDA is worth it

Ask for one when the part is genuinely novel, when it belongs to a customer who requires it, or when the drawing carries a specification you developed. A short mutual NDA is standard and most shops sign without drama.

Keep it proportionate. A twelve page agreement with an unlimited indemnity for a 40 piece insulator order will cost you good suppliers, because the shop legal review costs more than the job.

Questions worth asking a supplier

• How long do you keep quoting files, and how are they deleted?
• Who inside the shop sees the drawing during quoting?
• Do you subcontract any step, and does the file go with it?
• Will the part or a photograph of it appear in your marketing?

That last question matters more than people expect. Shops like showing interesting work.

What to watch for

• A shop asking for the assembly drawing when it is quoting one part
• A request for the end customer name during quoting
• A quote that arrives with a suggestion to change the design in ways unrelated to manufacturability
• Any resistance to a plain mutual NDA on a part that clearly justifies one

None of these are proof of anything. All of them are worth a question.

How we handle it

We are a matching service, so the file flow matters here too, and it is deliberate. Shops first see a preview with part type, grade, size, quantity, tolerance, route and region. No name, no company, no files. Your contact details and drawings go only to the shops that take the request, up to 3 of them. If you tick the NDA box, we hold the files until an NDA is signed between you and the shop.

The full description is on the privacy page, and the rest of the buying process is in the RFQ checklist and how to qualify a ceramic machining shop.

Where drawing protection sits in the whole purchase is covered in how to buy machined ceramic parts.

Send your RFQ and we reply within 24 business hours.

Frequently asked questions

Keep reading

• Everything a Ceramic Shop Needs Before It Can Price Your Part
• Seven Questions That Separate a Ceramic Shop From a Metal Shop