An engineer who has spent two years on semiconductor equipment is asked to order stainless steel tables for a new dairy. Naturally, they start from the last specification they wrote. The finish requirement is copied from a cleanroom, and the packing instructions are ones that nobody in a dairy will follow. But nothing on the drawing says that the tables will be hosed down every night.

Another engineer has just fitted out a restaurant, and makes the opposite mistake. They send a simple sketch of a table, and only later find that the feet and the welds are where dirt and water collect. Both engineers are ordering stainless steel, but neither has described the job the table will actually do.

Why a food plant needs its own brief

In the first quarter of 2026, food manufacturing accounted for about RM 3.3 billion of Malaysia's approved investment. One of those projects is a dairy development at Jemaluang in Johor, reported at about RM 119 million, which the national investment authority describes as an automated dairy. We have no connection with that project. We mention these figures only because they show that many new food production lines are being built, and each one needs its metalwork specified.

When engineers are asked to specify metalwork for a new line, they often start from the last project they worked on. If that project was semiconductor equipment, the specification will pay close attention to surfaces that do not matter much in a food plant, and too little attention to water. If the last project was a shop or restaurant counter, the specification will pay too little attention to both. In both cases, the problem is that the brief describes the previous job instead of this one.

For an overview of our food and beverage work, see Food & Beverage Stainless Steel Fabrication. This article is about writing the brief for a food plant, so that it describes the right risks.

Which parts a workshop is usually asked to make

The parts that come to a fabrication workshop like ours sit around the food process, rather than being part of it. They are not the tanks or vessels that hold the product. They are work tables and benches that food passes across, guards over motors and drives, and frames that hold a conveyor at the right height. They are also the legs and feet that stand on a wet floor, even when the drawing shows a dry one.

In a food plant, the welds on these parts are inspected closely by the cleaning team every day. That is a stricter test than a visitor looking at the surface, because any rough weld or gap will hold dirt and water. The details of surface finish, including Ra values and the No. 4 brushed finish, are explained in Specifying a Hygienic Stainless Steel Finish: Ra Values, No. 4 and What Food & Beverage Work Really Needs. Read that article when you are choosing the surface finish. This one is about describing the room and the cleaning, which should come first.

Where a semiconductor specification adds cost

A semiconductor specification treats almost every visible surface as critical, because the smallest particle can damage a wafer. But it often says little about the floor, because a cleanroom floor is dry. In a food plant, the floor is where many problems start. Water runs across it and collects around the feet of tables, or under a weld that was smoothed on top and left rough underneath. A table that looked perfect in the workshop can start to hold dirt in places that nobody checked.

You should still check the first piece carefully. The difference is that the check should be based on how the part is cleaned, not on rules from another industry. Please name the person who will approve the first table, and ask them to inspect the underside and the feet as well as the top. Keep the useful habits from semiconductor work, such as saying which surfaces matter and who approves the part. Leave out the cleanroom requirements that do not apply.

The best test is the first wash. Put the trial table in the real room, clean it the way it will be cleaned every day, and look at the feet an hour later. If water is still sitting in a corner that the drawing showed as flat, mark that corner and send us a photograph. Please do not approve the rest of the tables just because the top looked right in the workshop.

A guard over a drive can fail in a different way. The cleaner has to be able to reach the fasteners with a cloth. A guard that is smooth on the outside but has sharp edges on the inside will be rejected by the person who cleans it. Please tell us which edges the cleaning team will need to touch, so we can finish them accordingly.

Where a restaurant specification leaves out the washing

A restaurant counter is wiped with a cloth. A table in a food processing room is hosed down, sometimes with a cleaning chemical, and it is expected to look the same a year later. A weld that is acceptable in a restaurant may hold dirt in a processing room if it has not been properly finished where the water collects.

The same is true of the stainless steel grade. A grade that works well in an air-conditioned shop may be the wrong choice for a room that is wet every day. How to choose between grades is explained in 304 vs 316 vs 316L Stainless Steel: How to Choose the Right Grade for Your Environment. Please choose the grade after you have described how the part will be cleaned, not before.

The easiest way to describe the room is in ordinary words. Say how often it is cleaned, and whether it is cleaned with water or with a chemical. Then say whether food touches the surface or only passes near it, and whether the feet stand in water. From that description, a fabricator can suggest a suitable finish and grade. A photograph of a restaurant kitchen does not give the fabricator that information.

If a cleaning chemical is used, please give its name, or send a photograph of the label. The words "cleaning chemical" are not enough to choose between two grades of stainless steel. If the chemical has not been chosen yet, please tell us, and order only a first piece until it has.

What to send with your enquiry

Please order one table, one guard or one frame first, and clean it in the real room before you approve the rest. Tell us that the first piece is a trial, so that we do not set up the job as a batch of 20 while you are still moving a drain. If the trial leads to a change in a foot or a weld, please send a marked-up drawing that shows what has changed. A new file on its own leaves us to find the difference, and we may miss it.

• The drawing or sketch: please show the feet and the underside, not only the top.
• The cleaning: how often the part is cleaned, and with what.
• Contact with food: whether food touches this surface, or only passes near it.
• Your standard, if you have one: if you do not have one, please describe the room instead of copying a standard from a different plant.

The general information in What a Fabricator Actually Needs to Quote From Your Drawing still applies. For a food plant part, please add the cleaning method and the design of the feet.

What we will not do

We do not make pressure vessels, or pipework that must meet a pressure code. We would rather say so at the start than quote for a table and leave that unclear.

We will not sign a statement that a part will pass a hygiene audit, because only your auditor can decide that. What we can do is make the part in the grade and finish you specify. We will also tell you if we think the specification does not suit the room.

Send the drawing, how the part will be cleaned, and whether food touches it. If your company has a written standard, please attach it.

News about data centres in Johor is usually measured in megawatts of power and acres of land. The photographs show clean white halls with rows of server cabinets. But before the cabinets arrive, the building needs a great deal of ordinary metalwork: platforms over cable routes, frames for heavy equipment, and housings around pumps and valves.

That metalwork is a fabrication job, and it is quite different from the electronics it supports. Much of it may be painted or galvanised mild steel. Stainless steel is used where a surface will be seen, washed, or exposed to coastal air.

What metalwork a data centre needs

In early September 2026, YTL Power and JLand announced a large data centre campus at Sedenak Tech Park West in Johor. The first plot of land was about 145 acres, with an option to take more, in addition to the capacity YTL already has under construction at Kulai. Campuses like this are being built on the Malaysian side of the causeway because Singapore has the demand for data centres, but less land and power to build them.

We have no connection with YTL Power or JLand. We mention the announcement only as an example.

A news story like this does not tell you who will make the metalwork. To find that, walk through the mechanical areas of the building rather than the server halls. There are access platforms and the handrails that stop people falling from them. There are frames that carry pumps or cooling coils, because the concrete floor was not designed to take that weight directly. There are housings and guards around equipment that maintenance staff must be able to reach. And there are supports wherever a cable tray meets a beam, a duct or a column.

The material is a separate decision for each part. Painted or galvanised mild steel is common for platforms and hidden frames. Stainless steel is chosen for a surface that people will see, a room that is washed, or equipment outside in coastal air. A handrail in a dry corridor does not need to be stainless steel just because it is in a data centre. So please tell us where each part will be used.

If the equipment is outdoors near the coast, the grade choice is explained in Choosing Stainless Steel for Marine and Coastal Environments: 316 vs Duplex 2205. If the client will see the finished surface, see Stainless Steel for Visible Architectural Metalwork.

Who writes the specification

On a semiconductor project, there is often a written finish specification, and one person is responsible for approving the first part. A data centre project is usually organised differently. The operator buys power capacity. The main contractor builds the building. The mechanical contractor, or a fit-out company working for them, specifies the metalwork as openings, loads and dates.

That specification often arrives late, because it is written after the equipment has been measured on site rather than taken from the computer model. When it goes wrong, it usually goes wrong in simple ways. The drawing shows a platform at the right height but does not show the beam the platform must avoid. The load is described as "equipment" rather than a number of kilograms. The finish is described as "galvanised or painted, to match site", which could mean two quite different quotes.

A useful specification describes one opening at a time. It gives the clear height, the load in kilograms, the beam or pipe to avoid, and the finish. The size of the campus tells a reader how much power the site will use, but it tells the workshop nothing about how long a handrail should be.

If the mechanical contractor is in Singapore and the site is in Johor, please tell us who is allowed to approve a change. Singapore and Malaysia are in the same time zone, so a question sent in the morning can usually be answered the same day. Even so, please confirm every change on the drawing or by email. A change agreed only in a site chat group will not be on the drawing that we cut from.

For the general information a workshop needs before it can quote, see What a Fabricator Actually Needs to Quote From Your Drawing. For a platform, please add the load and anything the platform must avoid. A drawing that shows only the top of the platform leaves out half of what the workshop needs.

If the frame, the deck and the handrail are ordered from three different suppliers, someone will have to line up the holes on site. Single-Source Fabrication: How Drawing-to-Assembly Under One Roof Cuts Project Risk explains why it helps to have related parts made in one workshop. The same reasoning applies whether the parts are stainless steel or not.

What to send from Singapore or Johor

TH Steel's workshop is in Bayan Lepas, Penang. We are not a site contractor in Johor, and we do not install equipment or run cables. What we can do is make parts to your drawing, and agree with you how they will be delivered. Please send the following for each part.

• The opening and anything in the way: the beam, column or piece of equipment that the computer model did not show.
• The load: a number in kilograms, not a word such as "heavy".
• The finish: painted mild steel, galvanised mild steel or stainless steel. If you write "same as the other hall", please send a photograph of the hall you mean.
• The delivery point: a site in Johor and a crate that must be cleared into Singapore are different jobs, even when the parts are the same.
• The date: the day the installation team will be on site to fit the part.

If the part is mild steel, please say so in your first email, and we will confirm whether we can make it before we quote.

Why the second platform is not always a copy of the first

When the installer fits the first platform, they will often mark a beam or pipe that it nearly hit. The drawing for the next platform should be based on that marked-up first piece, not on the original computer model. On a campus with several identical buildings, it is tempting to write "same as the last one". But the beams, pipes and columns in the next building may not be in exactly the same places.

So please name the building or the area each platform is for, and attach the marked-up drawing from the first one. The quantity can increase, but each new location should be checked. The first platform is allowed to reveal problems. By the third, those problems should already be on the drawing.

Please also say whether the handrail is needed on one side or both, and whether a kick plate is required at floor level. These two details change the workshop hours more than you might expect.

What we will not do

We will not install the platforms in Johor. We will make them in Penang, to the drawing you approve, and we will tell you if a drawing is not yet complete enough to cut from. We will not treat a data centre frame as a semiconductor enclosure unless you send us that requirement.

Send the drawing, the load, the finish and the delivery point. Tell us whether this is a first platform or a repeat of one that has already been fitted.

A Korean equipment or test company is setting up a new plant in Perak, Penang or Kulim. The engineering team in Korea sends one large set of drawings for the new line. Some of those drawings describe the machines themselves. Others describe guards, covers and frames that are only needed because the Malaysian building is different from the Korean one.

When all of these drawings are handled in the same way, problems follow. If a small cover is made in Korea, it may not fit when it arrives, and a new one has to be shipped. If a machine part is made by a local workshop too early, it may not match the latest design in Korea.

How to sort the drawings into three groups

Before any drawing is sent out, ask one question about each part: what would go wrong if a workshop that does not know your machine made it? The answer puts every part into one of three groups.

Parts of the machine itself. These include moving parts, parts that must fit closely with other parts, and surfaces your customer will inspect. If one of these is made wrongly, the machine will not work as designed, or it will fail your customer's inspection. Keep these drawings with the designers in Korea, because only they know why each dimension was chosen and whether it may still change.

Parts that fit the building. These include guards, covers, adapter plates and support frames. They are needed because a column, a door, a drain or a pipe in the Malaysian plant is not where it was in Korea. If one of these is made wrongly, it simply will not fit the space. So they are best made near the site, where someone can measure the space with a tape measure and check the part against it.

Spare parts of an approved design. These look like the first group, but the design is already finished. A bracket that has been used on the Korean line for years, and is now needed on the Malaysian line, is a copy. It can be made in Korea or in Malaysia. Either way, it must be made from the approved drawing, with its revision number. A note saying "same as the one in Korea" does not tell the workshop which version to make. For more on how a copy differs from a trial part, see One-off, prototype and repeat work.

Sorting the drawings usually takes a few hours. It saves weeks later.

Why the 2026 announcements make this important

In July 2026, the Korean company K-Test started building its first Southeast Asian plant in Perak. The plant is reported to cost about RM 200 million and will test semiconductor wafers and finished chips. Completion was planned for the end of February 2027. Officials in both countries have spoken of more Korean companies building factories in Malaysia, not only selling to it.

We have no connection with K-Test. We mention the company only as an example of the kind of plant this article is about.

Each new plant of this kind creates the same situation. The engineers who understand the machines are in Korea, but the building the machines must fit is in Malaysia. Many small parts are needed quickly, and each one has to be sent to the right place to be made.

Korea is one hour ahead of Malaysia, so the working days overlap. A question sent in the morning can usually be answered the same day. Even so, please put every instruction on the drawing or in an email. An instruction given only in a chat message or a phone call is easy to lose, and it cannot be checked later. For more on how we work with Korean manufacturers, see Precision Stainless Steel Fabrication for Korean Semiconductor Manufacturers.

What can go wrong when a machine part is made locally too early

Making parts near the new plant is often a good idea. It is not a good idea for a machine part whose design is not yet finished.

A local workshop can cut and bend the metal accurately. What it does not have is the design history: why each hole is where it is, and which dimensions the designers are still changing. So a workshop may make a part to a shape that your designers planned to change next week. Or, to make the part easier to fit, it may move a hole that positions something inside the machine. Both changes look helpful at the time. But the part will then not fit the machine as your designers in Korea know it, and someone will have to explain the difference to them.

To prevent this, please write in your email that the drawing must not be changed. If we find a problem, such as a hole that clashes with a nearby frame, we will stop and ask the person you name. We will not move the hole ourselves, and we will not send a part that is close to the drawing but not the same.

The rule is the opposite for a part that fits the building. For a guard or an adapter plate, the measurements taken on site are what we cut to. A Korean layout drawing that has not been updated for the Malaysian building is useful as a reference, but we do not cut to it.

What to send a workshop in Penang

For each part, please send the correct drawing, the units it uses, and the stainless steel grade. Also tell us who in Korea is allowed to approve a change.

• For a machine part: the approved drawing with its revision number, the grade, the surface finish, and a note that the drawing must not be changed.
• For a part that fits the building: the measurements taken on site, which we will cut to, and the Korean drawing, which shows what the part must not touch.
• For a spare part: the approved drawing, or photographs of the original part next to a ruler, and a list of any features that may be different.

If the Korean drawing and the site measurements use different units, please tell us which set of numbers to cut to. Do not leave both on the drawing and expect them to agree.

You are welcome to visit our workshop in Bayan Lepas, especially before we make the first part that sits next to a machine. An hour of talking in front of the part can answer questions that a PDF leaves open. If you cannot travel, the drawings and a clear written note are enough to start.

Everything in What a fabricator needs to quote also applies here.

What we will not do

We will quote and make only from the drawing you mark as the one to use. We will not change a drawing for a machine part, even when a change would make it easier to fit.

We have not yet shipped parts to Korea, and we work in English only. We are not an approved supplier to any Korean company because it is building a plant in Malaysia. A new factory in Perak, Penang or Kulim does not mean we should copy every drawing that company has produced. If the approved drawings for the machines stay in Korea, please send us only the parts that fit the building.

When a company opens a new factory in Penang, the news photograph usually shows a clean hall and a large machine. What the photograph does not show is the metalwork that did not arrive with the machine. There may be a guard that has to be made locally, or a frame for a floor that is slightly different from the drawing.

That metalwork is a local fabrication job. Some of it should be stainless steel, because it will be washed, seen by visitors, or used in a damp room. Some of it may not need stainless steel at all. Either way, somebody has to notice early that the machine maker's delivery was not the whole plant.

What a new plant usually needs in the first year

In the first half of 2026, approved manufacturing investment in Penang was RM 17.3 billion. According to the state's account of that figure, about 69 percent came from companies expanding plants that are already here. So the work is not only in brand-new factories. It is also in extra production bays, and in machines that arrive and do not quite fit the space prepared for them.

Three announcements made in 2026 show the kind of building that is going up. In June, MKS opened a factory at Bandar Cassia for semiconductor equipment, reported at more than RM 400 million. In July, Aixtron said it would build a Penang facility for machines that deposit thin layers on wafers. In the same month, Eppendorf agreed to build a laboratory-instrument plant at Bandar Cassia, at about RM 180 million, with production planned for 2028.

We have no connection with these companies. We mention them only as examples of the plants this article is about.

In plants like these, the machines are designed and shipped by their manufacturers. The metalwork around them is usually bought locally, and it tends to be simple. Typical examples are a guard that keeps people away from moving parts, a frame for a monitor, a service trolley, or a cover over cables on a walkway. There may also be a bracket that has to line up with the real holes in a concrete base, rather than the holes shown on an old drawing.

Why an expansion needs the same work

A machine is designed in another country, for a floor that exists only in the designer's computer model. The real floor in Batu Kawan or Bayan Lepas may be slightly different. There may be a drain that the model did not show, or a column that was built a little away from its planned position. The machine maker delivers the machine, but somebody still has to design and make the metalwork that joins the machine to the real building. That design is often a sketch made on site after the crate has been opened.

An expansion creates exactly the same problem, but inside a plant that is already running. The aisles are in use, and the time allowed for installation is usually short. A drawing made before the machine arrived will often be wrong by a few millimetres here and there, and those small differences are what the local metalwork has to solve.

Take a service trolley as an example. The machine drawings stop at the edge of the machine, so the trolley is not on them. Someone on site measures the space beside the column, marks the floor and sends a photograph. That photograph is the start of the job. The workshop then needs the material, the type of wheels and the date the trolley must be in place.

The best person to send this information is the engineer who can stand in the space and measure it. A buyer who has only seen the announcement will not know which edges are already fixed by installed equipment. If the photograph and the sketch show different sizes, please tell us which one to follow, because we will not choose between them.

A cable cover is a similar case. The cable route was drawn before the column was built, so the cover now has to stop short of the column. Please mark that point on the photograph. A note saying "to suit site" leaves the length for the workshop to guess, and the length is the dimension most likely to be wrong.

If several parts are needed during the same shutdown, please send each one as a separate sketch. A guard, a trolley and a cover are three separate jobs, even when they are all needed on the same date. If they are grouped under one heading such as "miscellaneous metalwork", it is easy for one of them to be forgotten.

How to choose the material for each part

Choose the material part by part, not for the whole plant. Some parts should be stainless steel because they will be wiped down in a laboratory, or because visitors will see them. Other parts sit behind a closed panel, and painted mild steel may be enough. If every part is made in stainless steel just because the plant makes semiconductors, a simple guard can end up costing as much as a cleanroom fitting.

A trolley in a dry aisle and a table in a laboratory that is cleaned every day may leave the same building on the same day, yet need different materials. Please write your choice on each sketch. If you are not sure, tell us what the part will touch, and whether anyone will wash it. We can then suggest a material and explain why.

A bracket that must line up with a machine, or meet a written finish specification, is a more precise job than a guard or a trolley. For those parts, please mark the faces that touch the machine, and say which dimensions are allowed to change. A photograph of the space, with a tape measure in view, is more useful than a note saying "similar to the original guard".

What to send when the machine drawings do not show the part

You will not have a complete computer model on the day the crate is opened, and you do not need one to start. Please send a photograph of the space, the concrete base or the aisle. Add a sketch that shows which edges are already fixed by installed equipment. Then add the details below.

• The material, if you know it: write "stainless steel", or "painted mild steel" if stainless steel would only be there for appearance. Say whether the part will be washed.
• The quantity: say whether this is a single part, a first piece to be checked before more are made, or a batch.
• The date: if the part must be on site before an installation team leaves, put that date in your first email.

For the full list of what a workshop needs before it can quote, see What a Fabricator Actually Needs to Quote From Your Drawing.

What we will not do

We will not treat a news story about a new factory as an enquiry. We will also not assume we are an approved supplier because a plant is opening near our workshop. If you need a supplier to be formally approved by your company, please ask us, and we will give you a clear answer.

Send the photograph or sketch, the material if you know it, and the date the part must be on site. If that date is during a shutdown, please tell us when the installation team arrives and when they leave. A correct part that arrives after the team has gone is no more use than a wrong one, so the date matters as much as the drawing.

A buyer in Penang orders a batch of stainless steel brackets in March. In September, the same buyer sends the same drawing again and asks for the same quantity. The holes, the thickness and the finish are all unchanged, but the new quote is higher. Sometimes it is lower.

The buyer wants to know why, and the answer they usually get is one word: nickel, or freight, or paperwork. That word may be correct, but it does not tell the buyer how much of the change it explains, or whether anything else has changed too.

How to split a fabrication quote

A quote arrives as one total, but that total is made of different costs added together. It helps to look at them one at a time, because each one changes for a different reason.

The first cost is the metal. The workshop buys stainless steel sheet, plate, tube or bar by the kilogram, at a price set by the steel market, not by the workshop. The metal arrives with a mill certificate, which is the document from the steel mill that records the grade and the batch it came from.

The second cost is the workshop hours. These cover cutting, bending, machining, welding, finishing and packing. They change when the drawing changes, or when the quantity changes, because a larger batch spreads the setting-up time over more parts. They do not change because the world price of nickel has gone up.

The third cost is freight. This includes bringing the metal to the workshop and sending the finished parts to you. It can rise or fall while the other costs stay the same.

If you look only at the total, you cannot tell which of these costs has changed, so you may end up questioning the wrong one. You do not need the workshop's full cost sheet. You only need enough detail to see whether the extra money is for the metal, the hours, the freight, or a document that was not needed on the last order. Please ask for the quote to show these costs separately.

The same approach helps when you compare two workshops. Compare the metal cost with the metal cost, and the hours with the hours. A lower total may mean a thinner sheet, a missing certificate, or freight that has not been included. None of those is a real saving if the parts have to be exported. So please ask each workshop to show the same costs under the same headings, and the quotes will be easy to compare.

For what the workshop needs from you before it can quote at all, see What a Fabricator Actually Needs to Quote From Your Drawing. This article is about the quote that comes back when nothing in that pack has changed.

Why the price of stainless steel changes

Stainless steel contains nickel, and nickel is traded on world markets like oil or copper. Its price rises and falls with supply and demand in other countries. Since 2020, for example, Indonesia has banned the export of nickel ore, so that more of the processing takes place inside Indonesia. The OECD steel outlook for 2026 lists trade restrictions like this as one reason steelmaking costs change.

When the nickel price falls, stainless steel sheet usually becomes cheaper. When it rises, or when large buyers all order at the same time, the sheet becomes more expensive. Your bracket drawing has not changed, but the metal it is cut from now costs a different amount.

There is a second question worth asking. Is the metal price on the quote based on a new order from the steel supplier, or on sheet the workshop already has in stock? These can be quite different numbers. A quote in March and a quote in September may be based on metal bought at two different times, at two different prices.

Why the mill certificate matters for Europe

From 1 October 2026, an importer bringing certain steel products into the European Union must show two facts. The first is the country where the steel was first melted and cast. The second is the heat number, which identifies the batch at the mill. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1963 names the mill test certificate as the document for this. Until 30 September 2027, other documents may be accepted if they show the same two facts.

The legal duty belongs to the importer in Europe, not to the workshop. But the importer can only meet that duty if the certificate has been kept. If you ship steel sheet, plate or tube into the European Union, the certificate is part of the delivery. But a welded frame made from that steel in Penang may have a different customs code, so the rule may not apply in the same way.

What the workshop can do is keep the mill certificate with your job. Once the sheet has been cut into brackets, the mill's markings on the sheet are gone, and nobody can work out the heat number later. So if a European customer might need the certificate, please ask for a copy in your first email.

Why freight should be shown separately

Freight costs change for reasons that have nothing to do with your part. A queue at a port, a longer shipping route or a rise in fuel prices can all make the same crate more expensive to send. When that happens, please ask for the increase to be shown as freight, rather than included in a general statement that stainless steel has become more expensive.

There is also freight inside the supply chain, before the parts reach a port. Suppose a bracket is cut by one company, bent by a second and polished by a third. It has been transported three times before it is finished, and each move adds cost. Each move is also a chance for the finish instruction to be lost. If you are comparing a single Penang workshop with a chain of suppliers, see Single-Source Fabrication: How Drawing-to-Assembly Under One Roof Cuts Project Risk. That article explains the risk of splitting the work between several companies.

What to send so the quotes can be compared

A new quote is only useful if it is for the same job as the old one. Please send the previous quote number or date, and confirm that the drawing revision has not changed. Then add the details below, because each of them can change the price on its own.

• The destination: a crate for a site in Kulim and a crate that must clear customs in Europe are different jobs, even when the drawing is the same.
• The certificate: if your freight forwarder or customer now needs the mill certificate, say so in your email.
• The quantity: a different quantity can change the workshop hours per part.
• The delivery date: a different date can mean the metal is bought at a different price.

With this information, the workshop can explain the difference between the two quotes cost by cost.

What we will not do

We will not describe a higher metal price as extra workshop time, or the other way round. Each cost will be shown for what it is.

We will not tell you which European customs code applies to your part, because only the importer and their customs adviser can decide that. We can pass on the mill certificate that came with the metal, if you ask for it. We cannot create a certificate for metal that was bought without one.

Send the drawing, the grade, the quantity and the destination. If you have an older quote for the same drawing revision, please send that too.

The machine was designed in Hamburg, Herzogenrath, Seoul or the United States. It has been running in Penang or Kulim for years, and nobody on site still knows who designed the guard. Then a bracket cracks. Or a cover no longer fits, because the floor was repaired and the cover was made for the old floor. Or a chute wears through on an ordinary afternoon.

The line stops. The manufacturer's office may be closed for the night, their spare-parts desk wants a serial number, and nobody had budgeted for this part.

Why simple parts take so long

New factories around Penang are full of machines that were designed elsewhere, by engineers who are far away. Announcements made in 2026, such as Eppendorf's instrument factory, Aixtron's plans for deposition equipment and new Korean test facilities in Perak, show the pattern. We have no connection with these companies. We mention them only because they show where maintenance work is heading over the next ten years.

Each machine starts under warranty. When the warranty ends and something breaks, it is often a simple part: a guard, a bracket, a tray or a small frame. It is rarely the complex mechanism that the manufacturer designs and supports most closely.

The manufacturer will still be the official source of spare parts, but ordering from them can take a week or even a month. The drawings, the engineers and the stock are overseas, and the part is unlikely to be waiting in stock. In most cases, this wait causes far more delay than import duties or customs paperwork.

What a local workshop can and cannot do

A local workshop can make a copy of a simple part, using the broken part, measurements and photographs. What it cannot do is take the place of the manufacturer.

The two parts are different. The manufacturer's spare part carries their part number and their approval. Our part fits the opening and does the job you describe. If your insurer, your customer or the machine's warranty requires the manufacturer's own part, please order it from them. If the line simply needs a part that fits by Friday, tell us. Either way, we will not put the manufacturer's name on our work.

A spare part is not a prototype

Both jobs are usually for a single piece, so people often treat them the same way. They need different briefs.

A prototype is a trial. The shape is still being decided, and you tell the workshop which features may change. A spare part is for a machine that is already running. It is either an exact copy of the original, or a copy with one change to suit the machine as it is now. That change might clear a raised floor, or a sensor added later. For more on how those briefs differ, see One-off, prototype and repeat work.

So your first email must say which version the new part should match.

• The machine as originally approved. Send the broken part or the approved drawing, and ask us not to change anything.
• The machine as it is today. Send a photograph of whatever is now in the way, and tell us which features, such as a hole position, may move.

This choice matters. If we improve a part without being asked, it may not fit the manufacturer's assembly the next time their engineers service the machine. If we copy the old drawing exactly after the floor has changed, the bracket will match the drawing but not the machine. Please make the choice in writing, in your first email.

What to send us

The most useful thing is the broken part itself, sent by courier, with a note saying where it cracked and which faces must meet the machine. The next best is a set of photographs with a tape measure in view, plus the manufacturer's drawing if you are permitted to share it. A serial number alone does not help us. We do not have the manufacturer's catalogue, so we cannot work out the shape from a part number.

Please include:

• The shape: the broken part, photographs with a tape measure, or a drawing. A description from memory is not enough.
• What must stay the same: the holes that bolt to the machine, the side the hinge is on, and any edge that must seal.
• What may change: extra room for a new pipe, a foot that must avoid a repaired floor, or a thickness you have decided to increase.
• The material, if known: if you do not know the grade, tell us whether the original was stainless steel or painted steel, and describe the conditions it works in.
• The deadline: when the line needs the part, and whether a rough first piece tomorrow would help more than a finished one next week.

Everything in What a fabricator needs to quote still applies. A spare part adds just two things: the broken part, and a clear statement of what may change. Without that statement, we may copy the fault exactly, or design a new bracket that you have not had time to approve.

Who can approve the new part

During installation, a project engineer usually approved each part on the drawing. After a breakdown, the approver is whoever can look at the line and confirm that the guard is back in place. Please tell us who that person is.

If only someone overseas can approve a change, and they will not reply until tomorrow, a local repair will not save much time. You would still be waiting for the manufacturer, with an extra step added. In that case, please order from them directly rather than have us make a part that then waits for approval.

If the approver is on your site, a photograph of the new part held against the machine is usually enough. We can send that photograph on the day the part is made. Because we are in Penang, our working day matches yours, so questions do not have to wait overnight.

What we will not do

We will not mark our part as the manufacturer's, and we cannot tell you whether your warranty still applies. We work on simple sheet-metal parts: guards, brackets, chutes, trays and small frames. We will not try to reproduce a complex mechanism from a photograph of its cover.

Gearboxes, electrical parts and assemblies that must be set to a measured value should go back to the manufacturer, even if the line is stopped. A wrong part of that kind causes more trouble than the wait.

Send us the simple part, and tell us whether you want an exact copy or a copy with one written change.

A prototype, a part that has to fit an opening already on site, and a batch you will order again can all be made in the same workshop. They should not be briefed as if they were the same job. If the brief mixes them up, one of two things happens. A design that is still being tested is treated as final, or a part you have already corrected is remade from an older file.

The confusion usually starts with the enquiry itself. An email saying "Please quote" arrives with a drawing, and the workshop has to guess what you want. It may be one piece to learn from, one piece that must fit a doorway, or fifty pieces that must match a part you have already approved. That guess changes the plan and the price, which is why a quotation can seem wrong when the real problem was a vague brief. What a fabricator needs to quote explains how quantity, tolerance and finish change the price. This article covers a different question. Tell the workshop which type of job it is, and send the information that belongs to that type, because a prototype needs different information from a repeat.

Name the type of job before you describe the part

These three types of job need the workshop to work in different ways, even though the cutting, forming and welding may look identical on the job sheet. A prototype is a trial, so if it is planned as though every dimension were fixed, it cannot show you what needs to change without a dispute. A site one-off has to fit, so if the drawing is followed without question, the part may not meet the opening. A repeat batch is a copy of a revision you have already approved. If it is planned as though the design were still open, each batch may differ a little more from the approved part.

Put the type of job in the first line of the enquiry: prototype, one-off or repeat. Then send the information that belongs to that type, rather than the same general folder you send for every job.

Prototype: say what is allowed to change

A prototype is how you find out whether the part works. If every dimension is marked critical, the first piece cannot show you anything without turning into an argument about who was wrong. So tell the workshop which features are being tested. Take a guard whose handle position is still a guess, while its bolt pattern must match a machine that is already built. That is an ordinary prototype: the handle can move and the bolts cannot, and that sentence is worth writing on the drawing. If you mark the whole sheet as tight, the workshop will either plan for tolerances you do not need yet, or move the handle and then justify the change.

Tell us whether a second version is likely. "We may want another after we have tried this" is enough. If the workshop knows the first piece is a step rather than the finished product, it will keep notes with the job. These record what you accepted, what you asked to move, and which file holds the change. Those notes are more useful when cutting, forming, welding and finishing stay in one place, which is the practical side of single-source fabrication, because the person who saw the problem can change the next piece.

The notes do not replace a written change, though. A workshop can remember a conversation, but the second version may be ordered three weeks later by someone who was not there. A written note means you do not depend on that memory.

Site one-off: the opening decides the shape

Some parts are made only once because they have to meet a wall, a machine or a steel structure that is already there. A formal drawing helps, but often you do not have one. A sketch with dimensions, photographs of the opening, or the broken part you are replacing is a proper brief, and the quotation article explains how to send them. It mentions only briefly the thing that decides this job: which existing surfaces the new part must touch, and what it must pass through to get there.

A handrail that has to be carried into a stairwell in two pieces is a different object from the same rail drawn as one length. In the same way, a frame that must pass through a doorway cannot be one welded assembly, however neat that looks in the workshop. Tell us this in your first note. If the access problem is found only when the piece is finished, the fault was in the brief, not in the fabrication.

If you are unsure which measurements matter, send the photographs and the sizes you have, and tell us which edges must meet something solid. We will tell you what is missing before anything is cut, because a short list of missing sizes is better than a part that almost fits. If the one-off is a rail, a tube or a plate with a tight bend, read Bending stainless steel without cracking. Send the grade and the thickness with the sketch, because a radius that looks easy on paper can still crack the plate or flatten the tube, depending on the thickness.

Repeat batch: keep to the approved revision

For a repeat, keep the revision, the grade, the thickness, the finish and the dimensions you accepted on the approved piece exactly as they were. What can still change is the quantity, and where the parts should be delivered this time. If a first piece was approved, send that revision, and do not send an earlier file just because it is the one still in the March email. That is exactly how a corrected hole gets made wrong again. The March file was easier to find, and the June marked-up drawing, which was checked against the part in the workshop, was not attached.

"The same as last time", with no revision named, is not an instruction. If something must change, mark it on the approved drawing and state that everything else stays the same. We would rather treat a small revision as a new instruction than assume the old part is still what you want. A request to "make it a bit shorter" will be sent back to you. A dimension with the old number crossed out and the new one written beside it will be made.

When you place the repeat order, attach the approved revision to the enquiry itself. The workshop plans the job from that file, so nobody should have to search old emails for it.

Tell the workshop whether this part is allowed to change. That is the brief.

The type of job also decides the price, which is why the quotation article spends so long on preparation work. A one-off has to carry all of that preparation on a single piece, while a repeat batch shares it across many pieces. A prototype should not be priced as if the method were already settled, and a repeat should not be priced as if the workshop had never seen the part. None of these prices can be worked out if the enquiry does not say which type of job it is.

Semiconductor plants in Penang and Kulim need a great deal of ordinary stainless steel metalwork: brackets, frames, enclosures and guards. The part itself is rarely unusual, but the construction programme around it makes the work difficult. The drawing often looks finished before the building is, because the site keeps changing after the model is issued. The steelwork goes up, a process tool (a piece of production equipment) is set in place, and a floor opening moves a little. So the fabricated piece has to match what is actually built, not the model as it was three revisions ago. A late or wrong piece holds up other people who are already on site.

This article explains what to put on the enquiry so that the first piece is one you can approve. It is not a sales page. If you already know the part and want a quote, use fabrication for facilities in Penang and Kulim or the page for Korean manufacturers. Stay here if you are still deciding what the drawing must say, and what it can safely leave out.

Most of these parts are rejected because they do not fit

The people who specify this work are plant engineers, equipment engineers and contractors. They already have a frame, a process tool or a building grid that the fabricated part has to fit. Some drawings show every hole to the same number of decimal places, but never say which faces mate, meaning which faces touch and bolt to another part. The workshop then has to guess what “fit” means, and a wrong guess is expensive in both directions. If the workshop makes every size as precise as the holes that position the tool, a simple guard becomes a machining job. If it allows more variation on a hole that actually bolts to existing steel, the first piece is scrap when it reaches site. The workshop cannot tell those two holes apart from a neat PDF drawing.

So mark the mating faces and the holes that locate the part, which are the holes that fix its position. Then say in ordinary words which dimensions can move a few millimetres without causing a problem. That note is worth more than another view on the drawing.

If you are not sure which faces matter, send a photograph of the steelwork or the tool, with an arrow on the faces that touch. A photograph of the real object answers questions that a general arrangement drawing leaves open.

What to put on the enquiry

You do not need a perfect set of documents to start. You do need to send enough for the workshop to see both the part and what it must fit, and to notice when those two disagree. For that reason, a full model with no note of the environment is less useful than a marked-up sketch. The sketch might say that the part is indoors, bolts to this column, and has its brushed face towards the aisle. Send what you have, and mark anything you are unsure of. A fabricator can ask about missing information, but cannot see a gap that a confident drawing has hidden.

The useful set of information is short:

• The drawing, or the site sizes: a drawing marked with its revision is best. If the opening has been built and the drawing has not been updated, send the measured sizes and say so.
• Grade, or the environment: 304, 316/316L or another grade if you know it. If you do not, say whether the part is indoors, in a chemical area, or outdoors. Grade choice is covered in 304 vs 316 vs 316L.
• Finish: visible, or clean and functional. A guard nobody sees should not be priced as a polished panel.
• Quantity now, and whether more will follow: the same revision, or a trial before the rest.
• What the part bolts to: existing steel, an equipment frame or a floor. That tells us which edges are critical.

TH Steel fabricates stainless steel components and assemblies from drawings in Bayan Lepas, including cutting, forming, machining, welding, finishing and assembly. If the part must be made or packed to a written plant standard, send that standard with the enquiry. We will tell you what we can provide before anyone prices a job that silently assumes it.

Please do not describe the requirement as “the usual semiconductor standard”, because there is no single usual standard. One plant wants a functional guard with a clean weld. Another wants a written finish, a packing method, and a label that names the bay. If you have the document, attach it. If you do not, describe the room the part will sit in, and who handles the part after it leaves the workshop.

The first piece and the next revision

On a facility job, things on site change position after the steelwork is up and the tools are placed, and the first piece is often how you find out. The useful workshop is one that can remake a part from a marked-up revision, without sending the problem to another country and waiting. That is the practical point of working with a Malaysian fabricator, and it only works when the revision is explicit.

“Updated drawing attached” is not explicit. If you send two PDFs in one email and leave someone to find the change by comparing them, the change will be found late, or found wrong.

When you send a revised drawing, please include:

• The revision: the revision number, written on the drawing itself.
• The critical dimensions: which dimensions must be held, so the workshop knows where precision matters.
• What moved: a hole, an overall length, or a face that is now visible. Leave everything else out of the note, so nobody searches the whole part for a difference that is not there.

On a repeat batch, freeze the approved revision, which means it stays fixed for every later order. If you order “the same brackets” against an older file, a hole you have already corrected can be made wrong again. Quantity and delivery can change, but the approved shape should stay the same unless you tell us that it has changed, and how.

Who should approve the first piece

Please name that person in your enquiry. On a facility job, the fabricator, the contractor and the plant do not always receive the same emails. The workshop can make a first piece and send photographs the same day. But if those photographs go to someone who cannot approve them, they sit unanswered while the installers wait. You have chosen a local workshop, and then added the delay back by not naming the approver.

This does not need a formal procedure. A simple instruction is enough, such as “Send photographs of the first piece to this address, and wait before you cut the rest”. Another is “The first piece is the whole batch, and there will not be a second release”. Without an instruction like this, a trial can be made as though it were a production run. The opposite also happens, when a production run is held up as though it were still a trial.

A first piece that nobody has been named to approve waits in an inbox while the installers wait on site.

What this article does not cover

This article does not replace the plant’s own specification. It also does not cover process-wetted pipe (pipe that carries the process gases or liquids), ultra-clean tube, or piping made to a code. If that is your job, say so in the first message, so that the quote is for the work you actually have.

The parts this article is about are the ordinary ones a fabricator can make from a drawing and a clear description of the room: brackets, frames, enclosures, guards and fixtures. What a fabricator needs to quote covers the general information to send. Add the revision and the mating dimensions, and the enquiry is specific enough to price.

A buyer comparing a Penang workshop with one overseas is rarely asking whether stainless steel can be cut and welded, because they already know that it can. What they want to know is what happens when a frame must bolt to steel that is already standing in a Kulim plant. The drawing was right on the day it was issued, but the steel on site has ended up slightly somewhere else. So the first piece arrives, the holes do not meet, and a fitter marks up the drawing while everyone else waits.

That marked-up drawing is where the real difference between the two workshops appears. What happens to it next depends on where the workshop is.

Who should manage the whole sequence, from drawing to assembly, is a separate question, and it is set out in single-source fabrication. Read that article if the cutting, the bending and the welding are still split between different suppliers. This article assumes you may keep the work in one building, and asks what changes because that building is in Malaysia.

The main benefit is a faster correction

The cost to the programme is not the stainless steel. The installers are already on site, and the steelwork or the equipment is already in place. So when the holes do not meet, the rest of the job stops. Someone has to work out whether the drawing was wrong, the site moved, or the part was cut to an old revision. That decision usually needs only a few sentences written on the marked-up drawing. Making a new piece from those sentences is the slow part.

An overseas workshop makes that part slower still. The part, or a photograph and a revised file, has to go back to a workshop whose working day may barely overlap with yours. Then a replacement is cut, packed, shipped and quite often held in customs. By the time it arrives, a hole that did not line up has cost a week that was never in the programme.

Penang is one hour behind Korea and on the same time as Singapore, so a question asked in the morning can be answered the same day. That gives you a shorter conversation. It is not a promise that the part will be remade before lunch.

TH Steel was established in 1977, and the workshop is in Bayan Lepas. Buyers who can visit are welcome to ask for a time. Buyers who cannot visit should ask for photographs of work that resembles theirs, together with a plain account of the jobs the workshop will not take on.

One shipment instead of several

Freight is not only the last journey to site. A bracket that is laser-cut in one country, bent in a second and polished in a third has travelled three times before anyone on your project sees it. Each of those trips adds a queue and a packing risk. There is also the chance that the note about the finish never arrived with the cut blanks, which are the flat pieces cut from the sheet. So you pay for the movement itself, and also for the days the part spends between buildings.

A workshop that cuts, forms, machines, welds, finishes and assembles under one roof ships the finished part once. Who is responsible for the fit between the cut edge and the weld is the subject of the single-source fabrication article. If you are comparing a Penang quote with a chain of separate suppliers, read both articles, because the country and the number of suppliers are separate decisions.

Every move between suppliers adds a queue, a packing risk and a chance that an instruction is lost.

Close to the plants that use the parts

Penang and Kulim are where a large share of Malaysia’s semiconductor and electronics manufacturing is based. The brackets, frames, enclosures, guards and fixtures for those plants are often small, so the steel itself is a modest line on the quote. The cost of a delay is not modest. A part that misses a planned shutdown, or arrives after the installers have moved to the next bay, costs more than another crate of stainless steel.

Making the part in Penang puts the workshop close to the site where that delay happens. A fitter can mark up a drawing in the afternoon, and the workshop can see it the same day. Whether the next piece is ready the following day still depends on the job, the material and the other work in the workshop. The gain is that the conversation can start at once, without first waiting for a workshop in another country.

The same reasoning applies if you are in Korea or Singapore. You may be buying for a plant in northern Malaysia, or you may want the parts made here and shipped to you. In the first case, the workshop is near the site. In the second, you still have one supplier and one finished shipment, rather than a chain of separate process companies you cannot visit. The pages for those enquiries are stainless fabrication for facilities in Penang and Kulim and contract fabrication for Korean manufacturers.

Neither page means that TH Steel is a nominated supplier to a named plant, or that it is on a government list. If you need that status, ask us directly, and we will give you a direct answer rather than leave you to assume it from our location.

Ask who does each step of the work

Before you treat “Malaysia” as the benefit, ask four plain questions.

• Which steps stay in the building? Cutting, forming, machining, welding, finishing and assembly. If a supplier does the laser cutting but cannot say who does the polishing, the job is still split between suppliers, even if they are all local.
• Who sees the marked-up drawing? If the correction goes to a subcontractor you will never meet, you have the same delay as with an overseas workshop, only shorter.
• Can they show a part like yours? Photographs of a similar frame, enclosure or handrail tell you more than a list of machines. If they have not made that kind of part, they should say so.
• Is the quote for the finished part? A price for the cut blanks, with finishing “to be confirmed”, is not a price for the part you will install.

TH Steel’s answer to the first question is that all of these steps happen in the Bayan Lepas workshop. The processes there are computer numerical control (CNC) laser cutting, water jet cutting, milling and turning, tube and plate bending, welding, finishing and assembly. That is the comparison worth making. A supplier who matches only the country, and not the list of processes, has not offered you the benefit this article describes.

Ask the difficult question too: what will you not do? A workshop that can describe the jobs it should decline is easier to trust than one that agrees to every drawing in the first email.

What a local address does not replace

A Penang address does not supply a missing grade, thickness, quantity or finish, and it does not make an incomplete drawing ready to quote. What to send is set out in what a fabricator needs to quote: the drawing, the material, the finish, the quantity, and where the part will be used.

Three more facts change how we plan the job, and they matter more than the country named on the enquiry. Please include them:

• Whether the drawing is final: if you already know the drawing may change after the first piece, say so in the first email. We plan a trial piece differently from a final batch, but only when we know which of the two it is.
• The destination: if the parts must leave Malaysia, tell us where they are going. We will talk through how to support that shipment, because a crate for a site in Penang and a crate for another country are not the same job.
• Whether you need to visit: tell us if you want to see the workshop before or during the job.

Price is where buyers most often choose the wrong workshop. If you look only at the stainless steel, a part made here can look more expensive or cheaper than an imported one. The number that matters is the whole cost: the quote, the first piece, the correction, and freight that you pay once rather than between suppliers.

So put the two quotes side by side, and add the things that are not written on them. Who do you call when the holes do not line up? How many times does the part move before it is finished? Can you see a photograph of the first piece before the rest are made? If the cheaper quote cannot answer those questions, it is not the cheaper job.

Visible stainless steel is accepted or rejected by eye, after it has been installed. What the client sees is a bright weld, a brushed grain that changes direction at a joint, or one upright post of a railing that is slightly out of line. The drawing may have been right, but the brief to the workshop was not. The architect may notice the fault at the final inspection, or the contractor may see the client stop in front of one joint and not the others. By then the pieces are already fixed to the wall, and "we can polish that later" has become a discussion on site about rework that nobody included in the price.

The products TH Steel makes for this work, from handrails and stairs to screens, panels and counters, are listed on the architecture and interior page. That page lists the processes. This article covers the brief: the decisions that stop a good drawing from turning into an uneven finish. If you have time for only one step before you enquire, send the drawing, and use this article as a list of the things the drawing does not say.

Mark the faces that will be seen

Architects, interior designers and contractors are usually trying to protect the design rather than teach a workshop how to weld. Even so, the workshop needs to know which surfaces a person will stand in front of and which joints sit at eye level. It also needs to know which faces end up against a wall or under a ceiling. Dressing a weld (grinding it and blending it into the surrounding finish) on every face takes many extra hours, while leaving a visible weld undressed gets the installation rejected. Both mistakes come from the same gap: nobody said which face mattered, so every face was finished to the same middle standard.

On the drawing, or in a note beside it, mark the faces that are seen. A highlighter and the words "this side is seen" are enough. Then say where a joint must disappear into a brushed or polished surface, and where it can stay a neat welded corner because nobody will look at it. The first instruction protects the installed appearance, and the second saves the hours that would otherwise go into dressing a face that ends up hidden.

Before you assume that weld colour can be wiped off later, read Why stainless steel rusts around welds. Heat tint is the coloured oxide that welding leaves on stainless steel. It is controlled while the joint is being made and dressed, and it is much harder to put right once the piece is on site.

Grain direction, joints and alignment

On adjoining panels, screens and handrails, the brushed lines run in one direction. That is why two panels that each have an acceptable No. 4 finish (a brushed finish with fine parallel lines) can look wrong once they hang side by side. One grain runs across and the next runs down, or one weld was blended harder, so the satin surface around it is duller than the panel next to it. None of that shows on a drawing that says "stainless, brushed" and nothing more. State the grain direction where the panels meet, and state it once for the whole run. If each piece is finished on its own, you may receive a set of acceptable panels that do not match when they are hung together as a wall.

A small sample of the brushed finish, with an arrow showing the grain, is clearer than the finish name alone. No. 4 covers a range, and that range only becomes obvious when two batches sit next to each other.

Alignment is a separate instruction, and it is easily buried in the same note as the finish. A staircase or a balustrade is judged as one line rather than as a collection of parts. So tell us which lines must look straight or evenly spaced once the piece is installed. Tell us too which fixings may absorb the difference between the drawing and the site. Slotted holes have to be decided before the steel is cut. We fabricate to the information we are given, and we do not install the work. We also cannot slot a hole that has already been drilled to a fixed size because someone hoped the opening would match the drawing.

Outdoor does not always mean marine

A sheltered lobby, a city balcony and a coastal handrail are three different environments, even when the drawings look the same. For most indoor and sheltered work, grade 304 is the usual starting point, and it is the grade most people mean when they ask for stainless steel without thinking further. Grade 316 becomes the safer choice for salt air, a swimming pool, or regular contact with chlorides (salts such as those in sea spray and pool water). On the day they are installed, the two grades can look identical, but they do not stay that way.

Duplex 2205 is a grade for marine sites, not the default for every outdoor stair. Specifying it "to be safe" on a dry city balcony adds cost without improving the finish. When duplex is worth the extra cost is explained in Stainless steel for marine and coastal environments. Use that article when the site really is coastal, and not as a substitute for describing the site.

Brown marks on exposed grade 304 are often tea staining (a light brown stain on the surface) rather than a failure of the metal. They still show, and on a minimalist design they are the whole complaint. So tell us how the piece will actually be cleaned, and choose a grade and finish that suit that cleaning, not a cleaning routine that will never happen. Tell us too whether the setting is indoor, exterior or coastal. "Outdoor" on its own is not enough, because a covered walkway and a rail facing the sea are both outdoors, and they are different jobs.

Approve a sample before the run, and confirm the sizes

For a repeated screen, handrail or panel, ask for a sample or first piece before the batch is made. A hidden bracket can be accepted by checking its dimensions, but a visible run cannot. So the sample is where the grain, the weld dressing and the choice between a brushed and a mirror finish are agreed. At that stage a correction affects only one piece, and the batch then copies what you approved rather than a new reading of the drawing.

When you approve the sample, check the things a person will see:

• the direction of the brushed grain
• the dressed welds and joints
• the ends of the rail
• the way two panels meet

That approval is for appearance, not a structural sign-off. We are asking you to judge the finish, and the structural engineer is still responsible for the loads.

Tell us what "approved" allows us to do next. It is normal for a sample to be agreed for appearance while the sizes are still waiting for a site measurement. But if that sample is quietly treated as the release for fifty panels, the approved finish gets copied onto the wrong dimensions. The architecture page already says a sample can be made before a full run. Use that option when the finish is the product. For a one-off bracket that nobody will see, skip it, or you will wait for an approval the job does not need.

Site sizes are often the larger gap. A stair drawn at design stage and the opening that was actually built are different objects, so tell us whether to fabricate to the issued drawing or to measured sizes. If you do not know yet, send the drawing and tell us that the site sizes may still change. We would rather wait than cut a handrail that cannot be installed.

If the rail is curved, read Bending stainless steel without cracking. Send the grade and the wall thickness with the radius, because the radius alone does not show whether the tube will flatten in the bend.

On visible work, the finish is part of the drawing. If it is not written down, someone else will decide it.