Connector Pins & Machined Pins

Standard turned diameters are held to ±0.005 mm on our Swiss-type lathes. Where the drawing requires it we add a grinding operation and hold ±0.001 mm on the controlling diameter. Lengths are typically ±0.050 mm standard and ±0.010 mm precision. Every first article is measured on a Zeiss CMM and the report ships with the parts.

There is no fixed minimum. We machine single prototype pins and we run production batches in the hundreds of thousands. Because setup and first-article inspection are fixed costs spread across the batch, unit price falls sharply between 50 and 1,000 pieces and then flattens out.

Most pins are brass C360, phosphor bronze C51000 or beryllium copper C17200. We also machine stainless 303, 304 and 316L, titanium Gr. 2 and Gr. 5, Inconel 718, Kovar, and engineering plastics including PEEK, nylon and acetal — 70+ materials in total. Finishes cover hard gold, gold flash, silver, matte tin, nickel underplate, palladium-nickel and passivation for stainless.

Quotes are returned within 24 hours of receiving a drawing or CAD file. Prototype and first-article pins typically ship in 3–5 business days from drawing approval; plating adds roughly three to five days.

Yes. MetalWorks Plus ships to more than 50 countries by DHL, FedEx and air freight, door to door, with customers concentrated in the USA, Europe and Asia. Freight is quoted at the same time as the parts.

STEP and IGES are ideal, and we also accept SolidWorks, DXF and PDF. For a simple turned pin a dimensioned PDF drawing is enough on its own. If you only have a physical sample or an obsolete part number, we reverse-engineer from the part and the measurement report becomes your drawing.

Yes. Beryllium copper C17200 is machined wet on dedicated equipment with local extraction, which controls the airborne particulate that makes dry machining of the alloy hazardous. It is our standard choice where a contact needs spring behaviour and high current capacity in the same part.

It follows the cycle-life requirement. Hard gold at 0.76 µm (30 µin) over nickel is the reference specification for contacts rated above 10,000 mating cycles. A 0.05–0.20 µm gold flash is sufficient below about 500 cycles and costs substantially less. Palladium-nickel with a gold flash gives close to hard-gold performance at a lower precious-metal cost.

Yes. A CMM dimensional report, XRF plating-thickness report and material certificate ship with every order as standard. Full PPAP submission and AS9102 first article reports are available and are quoted separately, because they add inspection and paperwork hours rather than machining time.

This is one of the most common reasons customers come to us. Send the obsolete part number, a datasheet or a sample pin; we measure it, produce a drawing for your approval, and machine a drop-in replacement. There is no tooling cost, so the replacement is economic even at low annual volumes.

Machining wins below roughly 250,000 pieces a year, on any round or deep-bored geometry, and wherever diameter tolerance and concentricity have to be held tightly. Stamping wins on unit price at high volume once the die is paid for. If your stamped contact is failing a tolerance or cycle-life requirement, converting it to a machined pin is usually the fastest fix because there is no tooling to re-cut.

Yes. Receptacles, sleeves, isolators and machined housings are produced alongside the pins, so the mating pair is controlled to one drawing set and one inspection plan. Broader component work is covered under CNC precision parts and machine parts.