Woven wire mesh delivers a unique balance of flexibility and durability, allowing it to be fabricated into tailor-made components. From spark arrestors to low-pressure die-cast screens, the possibilities of fabricated wire mesh components are almost limitless when handled properly.
It comes as no surprise that the materials and labor needed to construct these parts will cause their price to fluctuate. If woven wire mesh is an integral element of your process and you purchase replacement components regularly, you may be requoted for a part sometime down the road?
But why exactly do fabricated wire mesh components need to be requoted, and what does the requoting process look like?
W.S. Tyler has been in the woven wire mesh business for over 140, and after helping hundreds of customers weave mesh into their process, we understand the value of trusting the process involved with integrating wire mesh.
To remain as transparent as possible, we wrote the following article to establish what you can expect when getting a fabricated wire mesh part requoted. With that, we will be covering:
- What an engineered woven wire mesh component is
- What the initial quoting process looks like
- Why you may need to have a wire mesh component re-quoted
- What the requoting process consists of
- The expenses associated with requoting a wire mesh component
What Is an Engineered Woven Wire Mesh Component?
Woven wire mesh is best defined as a network of individual metallic wires that become interlocked after undergoing a traditional yet precise weaving process. When post weaving services are applied to the mesh in order to achieve a specific shape, size, form, or thickness, the mesh is then considered an engineered component.
As woven wire mesh is one of the most versatile screen materials on the market, it can be applied to virtually any screening or filtration application. That said, engineered wire mesh components are often seen in the form of cut-to-size pieces, deep drawn parts, edged solutions, pressed articles, and cylindrical filters.
For a more in-depth breakdown of these common engineered woven wire mesh profiles, read the following article:
What Does the Initial Quoting Process Look Like?
Typically, if you wish to initiate the buying process, your first step is to submit drawings or blueprints outlining the mesh and the application. Once the specifications have been reviewed and verified to be within scope, the mesh supplier will send a quote that includes the cost of material and labor cost.
At this point, you will need to accept the parameters of the finalized quote and submit a purchase order to begin fabrication. That said, there are scenarios in which requoting may be necessary.
What May Cause the Need to Have an Engineered Part Requoted?
When working with woven wire mesh, material cost and inflation are common reasons as to why you will need to be requoted for a fabricated wire mesh component. The alloys used to weave mesh are known to fluctuate in cost overtime, and thus your quote must be updated to reflect the current cost of material.
This goes hand in hand with the fact that the time since you were last quoted also plays a significant role when being requoted for fabricated mesh components. To put it simply, a part sold for $.50 ten years ago isn't necessarily going to cost $.50 today.
Something else that is considered when requoting is the processes needed to fabricate the part. For example, If a manufacturer had a specialist leading the fabrication of a specific part leave, they would need to retrain someone else to fabricate the part.
Regardless, the process would go from the veteran staff member producing, let's say, 100 components a minute to the staff member in-training producing. Labor costs would increase slightly; however, the manufacturer should only transfer enough of these expenses to stay above margin.
What Does the Requoting Process Typically Look Like?
For some requotes, customers initially send a purchase order for an existing part. If, after review, it is concluded that it has been a year or more since it was last ordered, the mesh supplier will go back through and work out the material labor costs.
To explain further, let's say you are reordering a sock screen gasket that was $50 when you first ordered it, and we have 30 left in stock because we made out what was left in material. If you were to submit an order for 50 pieces, typically, the 30 we had in stock would be sold at the price you originally paid.
We aren't going to charge you more for what we already have.
That said, we would need to bring in new material for the 20 additional pieces. Now, if the difference in cost is marginal, chances are we wouldn't go through the process of generating a new purchase order.
But if material and labor costs reflect a 60% increase, we would have to requote the 20 pieces because they simply cost more to produce than the original order.
With all this in mind, it's important to know that every requoting process will be a little different. The process you will encounter will ultimately be dependent on the material market and what the mesh supplier has in stock.
Are There Expenses Associated With Having a Component Requoted?
Regardless of what your requoting process looks like, there are no additional fees that will be added for having a part requoted. That said, lead times are similar to a normal quote.
Simple pieces such as stamped or cut-to-size pieces require a less involved fabrication process; thus, lead times are quicker and should only take a couple of days. If you are being requoted for parts that require complex fabrication, it may take up to 2 weeks to receive a quote.
Fine-Tune Your Mesh and Test Its Performance With Fabricated Samples
Due to fluctuating material costs, inflation, and changes in production processes, the cost of fabricated wire mesh components is subject to change. When price changes occur, recurring orders must be requoted to reflect changes to the material and labor costs needed to produce the part(s).
While getting a component requoted can be stressful, it can also be the perfect opportunity to fine-tune your mesh specifications. And if you decided to make changes to your mesh components, what better way to determine how the new iterations will fit your process than with samples of the part?
Here at W.S. Tyler, we understand that fabricated wire mesh components are a considerable investment both in time and money. We want you to feel proud about your mesh, so we do everything we can to learn your process so we can help pinpoint a solution that is right for your specific needs.
And with that, we encourage you to read the following article to learn everything you need to know about wire mesh component samples and how you can get your hands on some: