Guides / Sourcing
The Eight Questions Buyers Use to Screen a PEEK Shop
September 24, 2026
Sources: manufacturer datasheets and published standards. See editorial standards.
If you machine engineering plastics and you want more PEEK work, it helps to know what the other side is checking. These are the questions that decide whether a buyer sends you a drawing, in roughly the order they get asked.
They are also the eight checks behind how we vet shops, because they are the ones that predict a good outcome.
1. How often do you run PEEK, and which grades?
The question behind the question: have you seen this material behave badly yet?
A shop that runs PEEK weekly has already learned that chips weld into a slot, that a thin walled part moves overnight, and that a dull edge shows up as a glazed surface rather than a rough one. A shop that ran it twice has not.
A good answer names grades and frequency. Unfilled and CF30 weekly, GF30 occasionally, bearing blends twice a year, no implant grade. That answer builds more confidence than a claim to handle everything.
2. Do you keep tooling for plastics, and separate tooling for filled grades?
This one separates plastics shops from metal shops taking a side job faster than any other question.
Buyers know that carbide that has been in steel has a rounded edge, and that glass and carbon dust contaminates unfilled medical work. A shop that keeps and tracks separate tool sets will describe how, without being pushed. A shop that has not thought about it says yes and changes the subject.
3. Do you anneal, and where?
In house oven, a named outside heat treat service, or nothing. All three are acceptable, and each one changes which requests fit your shop.
What buyers are testing is whether you understand when the cycle is needed: thin walls, deep pockets, tight bores, hot service. A shop that says a part does not need stress relief and explains why is more convincing than one that anneals everything by default, and far more convincing than one that has never heard the question.
4. Where does the stock come from, and can you pass through the certificate?
Distributor, direct from the resin maker, or customer supplied. Then the real question: can the lot certificate travel with the parts.
Medical and semiconductor requests die at this question. If the chain from resin lot to finished part cannot be documented, those requests are not for you, and it is better for everyone that you say so in the first email.
5. What is your part envelope, and what is your machine list?
Counts and sizes, not adjectives. Three CNC mills with the largest table dimension, two lathes with bar capacity, an annealing oven, an ultrasonic cleaner.
This is the question that stops a 600 mm plate landing on a 400 mm table, which wastes a week for both sides.
6. What quality system do you hold, and does the scope cover plastics?
ISO 9001, ISO 13485, AS9100, cleanroom packing, or none. Buyers ask for a copy with the registrar and expiry visible, and they check that the scope covers machining plastics rather than a different activity at the same address.
Holding nothing is a fine answer for industrial and semiconductor work. Claiming something you do not hold ends the conversation permanently, and word travels in a niche this small.
7. How fast do you reply?
Not how fast you machine. How fast you answer a question about a drawing.
A quote that arrives after the buyer has ordered elsewhere is worth less than a decline sent the same day. Shops that win repeat niche work are almost always the ones that answer within hours, even when the answer is a question.
8. What do you decline?
The strongest signal in the whole list, and the one shops most often get wrong by trying to sound capable.
Saying you do not take implant grade work, or will not hold ±0.01 mm on a 200 mm unfilled part, or will not quote under five pieces, tells a buyer exactly what your yes is worth. It also filters out the requests you would have lost money on, which is the point.
What a good first reply looks like
Short, specific, and answering the question that was actually asked. If a buyer sends a drawing with no grade and no service temperature, the reply that wins the job is not a price. It is: which grade do you intend, what temperature does the fit have to hold at, and is the 1.5 mm wall a real requirement or a leftover from an aluminium design.
That reply demonstrates every one of the eight checks at once. It is also the reason buyers come back with the next part, which matters more than any single quote.
Want requests that already carry the grade, the temperature and the documents? Register your shop and you see an anonymous preview of each one before you decide.
Frequently asked questions
Why do buyers ask which grades we decline?
Because a shop that declines something is telling you its acceptance means something. A shop that says yes to every grade, tolerance and deadline reads as a shop that has not thought about the work, and experienced buyers treat it that way.
Do we need ISO 13485 to get medical PEEK work?
For finished device components under a manufacturer quality system, usually yes. For instruments, trials, fixtures and tooling, often not. Say clearly what you hold and what you do not, because the requests get filtered on it either way.
Is it worth answering a buyer questionnaire in detail?
Yes, and quickly. The shops that win niche work are rarely the cheapest, they are the ones whose answers arrive the same day and read like the work is familiar.
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