Quality We want to be your quality partner, and we're investing in that relationship for today and well into the future.   Every carbide producer talks quality. At General Carbide, we invest in it. In the past decade, we've made a significant investment in new equipment, technology and processes to boost the quality of our carbide preforms to industry-leading levels.  These investments have touched every aspect of our production process, from order entry to manufacturing, quality control and packaging. Our Quality Investments While our investments greatly enhance product quality, they also reduce turnaround times through automation and increased in-house capabilities. Our CAD/CAM systems make it easy to download your files, providing speed and accuracy in the early stages of production. Multiple sinter-hip furnaces produce preforms with little to no porosity. Sinter-hipping can also provide up to a 50% increase in nominal transverse rupture strength.  We sinter-hip all of our EDM blanks, nickel-binder grades and preforms with cobalt binders of 18% or less. We stress relieve all products that will be EDM finished to allow for more aggressive machining.  At your request, we can perform this operation on any of our other products. Our spray dryer produces high-flow powders, allowing us to manufacture complex parts in our automatic presses.  These presses, which meet or exceed the industry's highest precision standards, offer consistent, high-volume production capabilities.  Robots used in tandem with the presses further increase our production efficiency and consistency. Advanced CNC machines give us the capability to make complex preform shapes with superior dimensional control. Rigorous quality controls throughout our production process ensure our products meet your requirements and our high standards.  Our coordinate measuring machines provide quick and accurate dimensional readings, while all of our gauges undergo regular calibrations that are NIST traceable and follow ISO guidelines.  We've also invested in upgrading our quality control department with a new Rockwell hardness tester and Nikon metallograph. On orders requiring Invar plugging, our in-house capability ensures rapid turnaround times. In addition to a dedicated nickel room, we have a dedicated sub-micron room to ensure these materials remain in their purist form.  We've also instituted cellular rush-order processing to meet your expedited delivery requirements.