Notes for owners · Sales management
What goes in a forging quotation: die, yield, heat treatment and machining allowance
The lines a forging quotation needs so a buyer can compare it fairly: input and forged weight, yield, steel basis, die, heat treatment, machining allowance and testing, and the dispute each line prevents.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
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Two quotes for the same stub axle sit on the buyer's desk, and yours is higher per kg. It may still be the cheaper part. The comparison only works when both quotes show the same lines. Those are input and forged weight, yield, steel grade and rate, the die, heat treatment, and the metal left for machining. Itemise those and say what is excluded. The buyer then compares parts instead of numbers, and your first invoice does not start an argument.
Why one rate per kg starts the argument
Per kg of what? A forger can mean the input weight cut from the bar, or the forged weight after trimming. Two shops quoting a rate per kg for the same part may be quoting different weights.
The shop that leaves more machining allowance sells the buyer more kilograms, then makes the buyer pay to machine them off. And "heat treatment extra as applicable" leaves the hardest cost to check outside the comparison altogether. The purchase officer sees none of this. The buyer's engineer can, but only if the lines are there to read.
The quotation, line by line
| Line | What to write | Why the buyer needs it |
|---|---|---|
| Part and drawing | Part number, drawing number and revision, and your forging drawing reference | A quote against an old revision is rejected at approval |
| Material | Grade as on the drawing, mill or stockist, mill test certificate with each lot | The buyer's quality plan traces every part to a heat number |
| Input weight | Kg of bar cut per piece | The steel cost is charged on this, not on the forged weight |
| Forged weight and yield | Kg after trimming, and yield as forged weight over input weight | A low yield is flash and scale the buyer is paying for |
| Steel basis | Rate per kg assumed, the reference it follows, any credit for flash sold as scrap | A steel price change can then be revised by arithmetic |
| Forging conversion | Per piece, covering heating, forging, trimming and piercing | Your own charge, the one the buyer can fairly compare across shops |
| Die and trimming tool | Cost, expected life, owner, who pays for re-sinks | A one-time cost kept out of the piece price |
| Heat treatment | Process and hardness range from the drawing, in-house or outsourced | Left vague, it is the first line disputed on the invoice |
| Machining allowance and draft | Allowance per machined face and draft angle, or "as per forging drawing" | Decides how much metal the buyer pays to remove |
| Cleaning and testing | Shot blasting, crack detection if asked, first-off and dimensional reports | Each is a cost the buyer may assume is free |
| Commercial terms | Packing, freight basis, GST, payment terms, annual volume assumed, validity | Lets the buyer's accounts match your invoice to the order |
Two lines need more than a cell. To let the steel basis follow the market without a quarrel, word it the way metal prices and open quotes sets out for castings. The same clause works for bar. The die line raises its own questions about ownership and re-sinks, answered in die ownership and die life.
Machining allowance: read last, argued about first
The allowance protects you. Scale, a decarburised skin, die mismatch and die wear all eat into the surface. A face without enough stock will not clean up when the buyer machines it.
Too much allowance, though, and the buyer pays twice: once for the steel, once for the machining time. A rival who quotes a lighter forging looks cheaper per piece even at a higher rate per kg.
So send a forging drawing with the allowance marked on every machined face, and ask the buyer's machining engineer to approve it before the die is sunk. But do not shave the allowance to win the comparison if your hammer and die cannot hold the closer shape. A forging that fails to clean up is rejected after the buyer has spent machining time on it. That rejection can cost you more than the order was worth.
For example: a stub axle from Adityapur
Imagine a closed-die forging shop in Adityapur, near Jamshedpur, quoting a stub axle for a trailer axle maker. The figures are illustrative.
The shop quoted a rate per kg of forged weight, wrote "HT extra as applicable", and never stated the forged weight. It won the order. The first invoice showed each forging 0.6 kg heavier than the buyer's engineer had estimated, plus a separate heat treatment charge. Accounts held the payment. Purchase raised a query, and the second release went to another shop on trial.
The owner requoted on the full format. The forging drawing showed 3 mm of stock on the machined faces, and the buyer's engineer agreed to 2 mm on two faces the die could hold. Hardening and tempering went in as its own line, with the hardness range from the drawing. The rate per kg did not change. The piece price fell, because the forging was lighter, and the buyer could see exactly why. The next release came back to Adityapur.
When a shorter quotation will do
A repeat part at an agreed price needs only the price, the drawing revision and the validity. A buyer who sends a quotation format gets that format filled in, with your line-by-line working attached behind it. A trader asking for a "forging rate per kg" with no drawing gets a polite request for the drawing, not eleven lines.
After the quotation goes
The die decision takes the buyer longer than the price. Ask who approves tooling spend and when, then follow up on that date rather than at random. When the buyer asks for a lower rate per kg, trade allowance, lot size or terms before margin.
Requote one lost part on the full format
Pick a forging quote you lost, or won at a thin margin. Rewrite it on the eleven lines above. Then compare the piece price with what you actually sent. Different story? Use the full format from the next enquiry on. The rest of the forger's selling job is on the forging and metal forming page. If you want it built into a quotation format through proposal development, around your own presses and costing, tell us what you need.
