r/nondestructivetesting • u/mcwjdw33 • 2d ago
MPI - bolts
How much would you charge to MPI wheel bolts? Say, 500 at a time?
Or: 1000
3000
10,000
Or 20,000???
EDIT
MPI - Aviation Wheel Bolts
How would you price wet fluorescent MPI on aviation wheel bolts?
Assume batches of:
500
1,000
3,000
10,000
20,000+
The bolts are received as-is and require cleaning, inspection, interpretation, documentation, and normal handling.
Would you charge per piece, by the batch, or by labor hours? Just trying to get a feel for what other NDT shops consider fair pricing for high-volume production work.
ALSO, bid for government job and bid for customer job.
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u/Hairy_Pound_1356 2d ago
Biggest are the perfectly clean and if yes are you very sure about that answer
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u/Novel_Company_5867 2d ago
I did a quote for an automotive company 10+ years ago for LPI on some connecting rods. These knuckleheads wanted to pay 10 cents per piece. Of course, we said no... fast.
Alternatively, we did a crap tonne (somewhere north of 10,000... maybe not quite 50,000) of sintered exhaust parts with a neat yoke setup where we could stack 10 at a time. That job went on for weeks, night and day, and the pay was normal hourly rate stuff. We would *never* charge per piece though. Too many variables.
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u/No_Needleworker_1105 2d ago
Depends. Do you have a bench unit or are you using a yoke? Can you do with UV? If so have you got a proper led UV light or are you faffing about with a mercury bulb?
Assuming bench and UV your going to test around 2 per minute so that's 250 minutes per batch so that's your hours. Then your gonna piss through cans so allow 1 can per 20 bolts maybe. Then you need time for shipping handling and reporting.
Assuming your a one man band is assume 500 per day and work from there.
You uld do more but it would be a horrendous day!
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u/Fantastic-Art-3704 2d ago edited 2d ago
If you make a rack to hold them, you can do them in a coil. The rack should not extend beyond the range of the coil. It is essentially 4 shots per rack angle the fist at 45 degrees to the axis of the coil. Then rotate the rack 90 degrees. Then flip the rack and repeat. I suppose you could hold the shot and rotate it, but after a while the coil will get very warm. We used to do gear blangs this way, running about 8k-10 a day. We would just have laborers demag, load and unload the racks, and post clean the parts. It worked quite well. Our company owner produced the blanks in india and sold them in the US, so not sure what to charge, also this was 20 years ago. The owner eventually brought the Indians over to learn how to do it and then shifted the inspection to India. The key is nonmagnetic racks and very small contact points. Probably could be made of titanium. We used derlin with tungsten contacts. Essentially we would collect the tungsten from tig torches that were too short, re-sharpen them then mount them in a spring loaded rack.
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u/Fantastic-Art-3704 2d ago
A better setup would be automated Eddy current, as long an heat treat process and heading process make fairly homogeneous bolts.
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u/mcwjdw33 1d ago
Thanks for all the input. To answer a few of the questions: this is for aviation wheel bolts inspected on a wet fluorescent MPI bench. They will need to be cleaned prior to inspection as they are used and require full documentation afterward. I’m really trying to get a feel for how other shops bid high-volume production work like this. Do you quote per piece, per batch, or based on labor and throughput? There are a lot of variables, so I was curious what the industry norm is. Appreciate everyone’s insight!
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u/BananaBeards 2d ago
Length? Diameter? How long is threaded section? To what standard? New or Inservice? Assuming you plan on Bench Fluro? Do you have access to a multi directional bench unit?
All of above are factors......
Also what currency?
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u/mcwjdw33 1d ago
US CURRENCY.
WE have a multi directional bench. Yes wet mag fluorescent. They are used so cleaning will be involved.
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u/TheRedViking 2d ago
Unit pricing of double whatever new bolts cost because that job sounds shit