Finding Business Opportunities

As you can probably imagine, there are a lot of cast metal parts manufactured from all materials and processes that make up our military’s weapon systems. That means that the Department of Defense purchases castings each and every day. Finding government business opportunities for castings is a difficult task because many of the cast parts that the government buys are not identified as such. More often than not, the casting may just be one component of an assembly or the part requires some secondary operations (machining, plating, painting, etc.) to make the ‘finished part’. As a result, casting opportunities are not easily identifiable and most foundries are not aware of the opportunities until they receive an occasional RFQ from a customer.

Non-Ferrous Founders’ Society has made this process easy for metalcasters through programs developed within AMC. First, list your company in the Defense Casting Supplier Database. This is an online resource developed by NFFS that features foundries and diecasters who either currently or want the opportunity for defense-related work, either as a prime or subcontractor. Companies that are in the supplier database will automatically receive open solicitation notices that are matched to your plant capabilities (material, process, size, etc.) In addition, all of the pertinent details for that solicitation are spelled out on the notice, minimizing your time in making a determination of whether or not it is something you would like to pursue.         Continue >>