Paperless Parts and Online Metals Partner to Deliver On-Demand Materials Pricing for Engineers and Custom Part Manufacturers
Partnership enables fastest and simplest quote delivery with built-in materials pricing and geometry engine
April 28, 2020
BOSTON — Paperless Parts, the secure, ITAR compliant cloud-based platform that is revolutionizing manufacturing, today announced that it has partnered with Online Metals. Through this partnership, Paperless Parts will combine its understanding of how part geometry drives materials selection with Online Metals’ instant materials pricing to provide engineers and custom part manufacturers with the ability to streamline one of the first steps in every quoting process – materials pricing, a significant pain point that slows the quoting process. Online Metals will provide its customers who sign up for Paperless Parts with access to this tool free for one year.
Manufacturers have historically focused on the efficient delivery of their products, not the frontend processes that are critical to business success. But as the world becomes increasingly digital, job shops have had to keep pace – and for many, that means improving their quoting capabilities. However, this shift has been stalled by two critical components of the quoting process: the ability to quickly determine the required amount and price of materials to manufacture the part.
By integrating Online Metals’ materials expertise with Paperless Parts’ patent-pending technology, Paperless Viewer, estimators will have access to a powerful engineering tool that analyzes part manufacturability, allowing estimators to deliver more accurate, comprehensive quotes with the right pricing in minutes, rather than days or weeks. Not only does this solution address key challenges related to selecting and pricing raw metals, but through the Paperless Viewer users have access to an engineering tool that also analyzes part manufacturability. With this tool, they can now answer another key question in the quoting process: “Can I make these parts?”
Using the Paperless Viewer, engineers and custom part manufacturers will have the ability to quickly:
- View and securely store all 2D and 3D CAD file formats
- Calculate optimal materials requirements (bars, rods and nested sheets) for every job and get instant pricing and purchasing options from Online Metals
- Determine if a part is manufacturable based on configurable manufacturability thresholds
- Securely and digitally chat with their teams and share design feedback with customers
“In today’s supply chain, engineers have access to modern solutions that allow them to design parts using advanced technology,” said Jason T. Ray, co-founder and CEO of Paperless Parts. “Many manufacturers, however, are still working in Excel or – in some cases – pen and paper, creating a significant technology gap that leads to bottlenecks within the supply chain. By providing both engineers and manufacturers with access to the Paperless Viewer and instant materials pricing from Online Metals, we are leveling the playing field, allowing them to collaborate more effectively and deliver an accurate product to their customer more quickly than ever.”
“At Online Metals, our mission has always been to bring our customers faster ways to price and purchase metals regardless of the quantity or size required,” said Greg Raece, President of Online Metals. “This partnership with Paperless Parts is a logical extension of what we set out to do 22 years ago. Not only can our customers now calculate the material requirements of a specific job and seamlessly order materials, they can rest assured that they have the ability to accurately manufacture that part – a game changer for purchasing materials online.”
“The integration between Paperless Parts and Online Metals has been significant for our business,” said Justin Quinn, President of Focused on Machining. “Within a day of being onboarded to the solution we were able to more quickly, confidently and seamlessly calculate our materials requirements and visualize it. The tool makes it easy to order materials from Online Metals when we need them.”
To learn more about this partnership, visit paperlessparts.com/onlinemetals.
About Online Metals
As the world’s leading eCommerce metal and plastics supplier, Online Metals specializes in cut-to-size, small to medium quantity orders of fabrication materials, shipped direct to any location. Founded in Seattle in 1998, the company has grown over the years and expanded to six distribution facilities across the U.S., with over 80 employees and over 55,000 products for sale on its eCommerce website. The company’s continued growth and success resulted in an acquisition in 2007 by thyssenkrupp AG.
About Paperless Parts
Paperless Parts is the secure, ITAR registered and compliant cloud-based platform that is revolutionizing manufacturing. The powerful geometric analysis engine unlocks hidden insights and enables job shop manufacturers to modernize and grow their business by rapidly pinpointing manufacturability issues, creating quotes, and processing orders for additive manufacturing, sheet-metal fabrication, and milling/machining production processes.