Sheet metal · Laser · Forming · Welded assemblies

Send the drawing before lunch. Get a priced quote before you leave.

Ashgrove quotes every complete enquiry within one working day, with the price broken down by material, machine time and finishing — so you can see what to change if the number is wrong for you. One piece or five thousand, no minimum order value.

1 dayMedian quote turnaround
±0.05 mmLaser cut tolerance
96.4%On-time delivery, 12 months

Drawings are covered by a mutual NDA on request, held on servers in-country, and never shown to another customer. We also do not quote work that competes directly with an existing client without telling you first.

14CNC machines across two halls
6 mmMax mild steel on the fibre laser
3.2 mLongest press brake bed
27 yrsSame family, same site
Capability

What we can actually make

Published limits, not aspirations. If your part is outside these, say so in the enquiry and we will tell you who does it rather than quoting something we would struggle with.

Fibre laser cutting

4 kW fibre laser with automatic sheet loading, running two shifts. Nesting is done in-house so offcut waste sits on our side of the invoice, not yours.

Mild steel ≤ 6 mm · stainless ≤ 5 mm · aluminium ≤ 4 mm · bed 3000 × 1500 mm · ±0.05 mm

CNC forming

Three press brakes with offline programming, so a new part does not eat an hour of machine time before the first bend. Tooling for radius, hemming and small-flange work is on site.

Up to 3200 mm × 135 t · min flange 8 mm · angle tolerance ±0.5° · air bending

Welded assemblies

MIG, TIG and spot, with coded welders for structural work and fixtures built in-house for anything above 50 pieces. Weld maps are agreed before the first article, not after.

MIG · TIG · spot · coded to ISO 9606-1 · fixtures from batch 50 · full penetration on request

Machining and inserts

Tapping, countersinking and self-clinch inserts done in the same cell as forming, which removes a handling step and about three days from a typical order.

M3–M16 tapping · PEM inserts · countersink 82°/90° · reaming to H8

Finishing

Powder coating and wet spray through two long-standing partners, zinc plating through a third. Their lead times are included in the quote rather than added later as a surprise.

Powder coat RAL/BS · wet spray · zinc plate · anodising · deburr and linish in-house

Inspection and documents

First article inspection on every new part number, dimensional reports on request, and material certificates traced to the heat number for anything structural.

FAIR on new part numbers · EN 10204 3.1 certs · CMM report on request · ISO 9001:2015
Before you send it

Six things that turn an enquiry into a price

Most quotes that take three days instead of one are missing something from this list. None of it needs to be perfect — a hand sketch with dimensions beats a beautiful model with no material called out.

If you have only some of it, send what you have. We would rather ring you at nine in the morning than sit on the enquiry waiting for a complete pack.

Start the enquiry
  1. 1A drawing or modelSTEP for anything folded, DXF for flat parts, PDF for the dimensions and notes. A photo of a marked-up sketch is genuinely fine for a first price.
  2. 2Material and thicknessGrade matters more than people expect — 304 and 316 differ by about 30% on material cost, and we will not guess which one your application needs.
  3. 3Quantity, and the repeat"250 now, maybe 1,000 a year" gets a better price than "250", because it changes how we nest, tool and buy. Tell us the repeat even if it is uncertain.
  4. 4Tolerances that actually matterMark the three dimensions that must be held and let the rest run to general tolerance. A drawing where everything is critical prices as though everything is critical.
  5. 5Finish and any certificationPowder coat colour, plating spec, or "raw is fine". Material certs and weld documentation change both the price and the lead time, so they belong in the enquiry.
  6. 6When you need it, and whereA required date lets us quote the right route. Delivery point matters too — kerbside, loading bay, or into a line changes packaging and freight.
Published lead times

What "quick" means here, in working days

Measured from approved drawing and purchase order, not from first email. These are the figures the last twelve months actually ran at, and the on-time column is what we hit against them.

Work typeStandardExpeditedOn-time, 12 mo
Flat laser-cut parts, raw3–5 days48 hours98.1%
Cut and formed, raw5–8 days3 days96.9%
Welded assembly, raw8–12 days5 days95.2%
Any of the above, powder coated+4–6 days+3 days94.7%
Zinc plated or anodised+6–8 daysnot offered93.4%
First article on a new part number+2 days+1 day99.0%

Expedited work carries a 25% surcharge and is confirmed by a person before it is promised — we do not accept an expedited order the machine schedule cannot take.

From enquiry to delivery

Five steps, and who does what

Enquiry received

A named estimator picks it up — you get their direct line in the acknowledgement, not a ticket number.

within 1 hour

Quote issued

Priced by material, machine time and finishing, with the lead time and the assumptions we made written out.

by 17:00 next day

Order and drawing freeze

We confirm the revision we are working to. Changes after this point are re-quoted rather than absorbed quietly.

same day as PO

First article

On a new part number, one piece is made and measured before the batch runs. You get the report and can stop the batch.

+2 days

Production and delivery

Batch, inspect, pack to your delivery point. Certificates and reports travel with the paperwork, not by email a week later.

per lead time
Recent work

Parts that left the building last month

Published with each customer's permission. Where a part is proprietary, we show the process rather than the product.

Interior of the fabrication workshop with CNC machines Product photograph of a formed steel bracket Product photograph of a welded stainless enclosure Close product detail of a TIG welded seam Inspection bench interior with measuring equipment Product photograph of finished parts packed for delivery
Approvals and customers

Audited by people who buy from us

ISO 9001:2015 certified since 2011, plus customer audits from three of the names below. Certificates are sent with the quote if your process needs them on file first.

Certification badge logo Customer company logo Customer company logo Customer company logo Customer company logo

"We send drawings to four fabricators. Ashgrove is the only one whose quote tells us which dimension is driving the price, which means we can change the part instead of arguing about the number."

Portrait of buyer Ingrid Halvorsen
Ingrid HalvorsenPurchasing manager · machinery OEM

"They turned down an expedited order last March because the schedule was full, and told us who could take it. That phone call is why they now get the whole programme."

Portrait of buyer Samuel Adeyemi
Samuel AdeyemiSupply chain lead · energy systems
Purchasing questions

Six things buyers ask before the first order

No minimum order value and no minimum quantity. One piece is quoted the same day as five thousand — it just carries the setup cost visibly rather than hidden in a unit price, so you can decide whether to batch it with something else.

Yes, either yours or ours, usually returned the same day. Drawings are stored on in-country servers, access is limited to the estimator and the programmer, and files are deleted on request when a programme ends.

First order is 50% with the purchase order, balance before despatch. After two completed orders we open a 30-day account subject to a credit check. Tooling and fixtures are invoiced separately and are yours — we store them here at no charge.

Yes, on a blanket order with scheduled call-offs across up to twelve months. You get the batch price on the full quantity and we hold the finished parts here, invoiced as they ship. Storage is free for the first six months.

If it is our error we remake it at our cost and expedite it, and you get the inspection record showing how it passed. If the drawing was ambiguous we split the cost and change the drawing note so it cannot happen again on the repeat.

No. If a part is outside the published limits above, the reply says so and names two other shops that can take it. We would rather lose an enquiry than deliver something we had to fight the machine to produce.

Quotes back within one working day

Send what you have. We will tell you what is missing.

An incomplete enquiry still gets a same-morning phone call from the estimator who will price it. Nothing sits in a queue waiting for a perfect drawing pack.

  • Priced by material, machine time and finishing
  • Assumptions written down, so you can change the part
  • Mutual NDA on request, returned the same day
Send a drawing on WhatsApp

Quick enquiry

Acknowledged within the hour during desk hours, with the estimator's direct line.