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A catalogue grade and a catalogue size cover most orders. The exceptions are the ones that decide whether a project keeps to schedule: a plate that has to fit an existing housing, a spool that has to match a customer's feed system, a trial quantity that has to run before anyone commits to a production release. Custom nickel alloy orders are built from a specification, and the specification is what the enquiry has to carry.
Four things move an order off the catalogue, and any one of them is enough to change what the plant has to plan. A size or tolerance that is not held as standard. An analysis window that differs from the published grade. A condition, finish or package form that is not normally stocked. A quantity that is too small or too large for a standard package.
None of these is a problem in itself. They are the reason a manufacturer keeps a melting and finishing route that a stockholder does not, and the reason a custom order gets quoted at all.
Eight items settle the quotation, and every one of them becomes a release criterion once the order is placed. The plant can fill in none of them on the buyer's behalf.
| Item | Why the plant needs it | What it costs to leave out |
|---|---|---|
| Grade or UNS number, with the standard the order is released to | Fixes the analysis and the release criteria | The mill works from an assumption |
| Form: bar, wire, tube, strip or plate | Determines the route and the tooling | The quotation comes back for the wrong product |
| Size and tolerance | Sets the finishing operation | Material arrives needing extra machining |
| Condition or temper | Sets the heat treatment | The mechanical values belong to another condition |
| Quantity, and whether it is a trial or a production release | Sets the charge and the packing | Price and schedule move after the order is placed |
| Test documents, and any inspection body that will attend | Sets the inspection plan | No certificate for the heat at delivery |
| Marking and packing | Matches how the buyer handles and stores the material | Repacking at the buyer's site |
| Destination and required date | Sets the delivery band and the export documents | The dispatch date is fixed after production, not before |
The quantity that starts an order, and the document the lot is released to, both follow the form.
| Form | Minimum order quantity | Standard the lot is released to |
|---|---|---|
| Bar and rod | 10 kg | ASTM B160 with GB/T 4435-2010 |
| Wire | 5 kg, and 1 kg for micro wire at 0.05 mm and below | ASTM B164 with GB/T 21653-2008 |
| Tube and coil tube | 10 kg, and 3 kg for N4 | ASTM B161 and B163 with GB/T 2882-2023 |
| Strip | 5 kg | ASTM B162 with GB/T 2072-2020 |
| Sheet and plate | 5 kg | ASTM B162 with GB/T 2054-2023 |
A trial quantity runs to 0.5 kg. N6 and Ni200 are supplied free of charge; N4 and Ni201 are charged, and the amount is returned against a first production order.
The grade fixes the analysis window the enquiry has to name. Commercially pure nickel is graded by nickel content: Ni200 at 99.2% minimum with carbon held to 0.15% maximum, Ni201 at 99.0% minimum with carbon to 0.02% for forming and welding work, and the higher-purity N6 and N4 at 99.5% and 99.9%. None of the four is an alloy, and the two high-purity grades are quoted from the analysis window agreed on the order.
The standard follows the form because the test methods do. A tensile result taken on drawn wire and a tensile result taken on bar come from different specimens, so a certificate issued to the bar standard does not stand in for the wire. Where one grade is ordered in two forms, two certificates follow.
Each stage fixes something the next stage depends on, which is why the sequence matters more than any single step in it.
| Stage | What is fixed here | What it costs to return to it |
|---|---|---|
| Enquiry review | The route the product needs, and whether it can be produced as asked | Nothing, if it is caught here; the quotation is reissued |
| Quotation | Grade, standard, size and tolerance, condition, quantity, documents and delivery band | A new quotation, and the delivery band restarts from the date it is accepted |
| Order confirmation | The specification the plant is bound to | The confirmed version governs, so anything later is handled as an amendment |
| Inspection | The points at which a deviation can still be corrected | Re-inspection, with the lot moved back behind other work |
| Release and dispatch | The certificate for the heat and the packing list | The lot is documented and packed, so a change means repacking and reissuing |
Two of those stages carry most of the risk. Chemistry is fixed by the heat, so a change to the analysis window after the charge is weighed is a new heat. Tolerance is fixed by the finishing operation, so a tolerance called up after the quotation is the usual reason for a re-quote.
Three bands are quoted, and the band follows how much of the route has to be set up for the order.
| Band | What puts an order here | What the buyer has to have supplied |
|---|---|---|
| 3 to 7 days | A size and condition that are held, in a quantity that suits a standard package | Grade, form, size and quantity |
| 7 to 15 days | Standard production of a catalogue grade and form | The full specification, including the test documents |
| 15 to 30 days | A non-standard size, tolerance or condition produced to a drawing | The drawing, and agreement on the inspection points |
A certificate for the heat is normal on every order. Anything beyond it has to be written in before production starts, because the inspection plan is built around it.
| Document | What it covers | When it has to be requested |
|---|---|---|
| Mill test certificate, EN 10204 3.1 | Heat analysis and the mechanical results for the ordered condition | With the order; it is issued with the lot |
| Packing list | What is in each package and how it is marked | With the order, since it follows the marking instruction |
| Inspection by an appointed body | The tests a named body witnesses or performs | Before production starts, so the inspection points can be planned |
| Batch records split across deliveries | Which heat went into which part of a staged delivery | Before the first release, so the split is made at the lot stage |
The order of those four matters. A certificate is produced from the heat, so a lot released without the tests cannot be given them afterwards, and an inspection body appointed after the metal has been rolled has nothing left to witness.
What the certificate does carry is worth reading against the order before the material is booked in, since the two can disagree without either side having made a mistake.
| On the certificate | What it records | What it does not record |
|---|---|---|
| Heat analysis | The chemistry of the heat the lot came from | The chemistry of any other lot shipped against the same order |
| Mechanical results | The values for the condition that was ordered | Values for another condition or temper |
| Dimensions | The size and tolerance the lot was released to | The size the finished part needs after machining |
| Standard cited | The standard named on the order | Any second standard that was not ordered |
Strip, plate and wire start at 5 kg, and bar and tube at 10 kg. Micro wire at 0.05 mm and below is available from 1 kg, and N4 high-purity orders from 3 kg.
Three bands are quoted: 3 to 7 days for small quantities of a size that is held, 7 to 15 days for standard production, and 15 to 30 days where a non-standard size, tolerance or condition has to be produced to a drawing.
Each lot is released with an EN 10204 3.1 mill test certificate issued for the heat, together with the packing list. Where an inspection body is appointed, the requirement is fixed in the order before production begins.
N6 and Ni200 are supplied free of charge at 0.5 kg. N4 and Ni201 are charged, and that charge is returned against a first order of 50 kg or more.
The confirmed specification is what production works to, so a change is handled as an amendment against it. Chemistry is the hard limit, because a heat that has been melted cannot be adjusted to a new window. A size, tolerance or condition can still be amended while the material is at the finishing stage, and the schedule moves accordingly.
It can, and the reason is the finishing operation. A tolerance decides how much material the operation removes, which decides the yield from the same starting weight. Giving the plant the tolerance before the quotation is what keeps the two figures consistent.
A custom order is only as good as the specification behind it. Grade, standard, form, size, tolerance, condition, quantity and documents are the items the plant works from, and every one of them is cheaper to fix before the charge is weighed than after the lot has been released.
Nickel alloys have been produced at DLX since 2002 in a plant of more than 12,000 m², rated at 10,000 t/yr and certified to ISO 9001 with SGS audits. Custom specifications are quoted from the drawing: send the grade, the form, the size and tolerance, the condition and the quantity for a confirmed quotation.
The values quoted are nominal and are not acceptance limits. Acceptance follows the ordered specification and the testing agreed on the order, and the certificate reports the heat the material came from.
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