Casting quotes drafted from the RFQ, the drawing and the annual volume, for your estimator to check.

A buyer emails a drawing, an alloy or specification callout, an annual volume and sometimes a photo of an old pattern. Your estimator works out what is being poured and in what, how many come off a mold, whether the tooling exists, what gets machined and heat treated, what has to be inspected, and what the buyer forgot to say.

For the test, AI goes through copies of RFQs you already answered and writes the estimator's first pass in the layout your own quote sheet uses. Each cost line comes from the rates you send or stays empty, each value names where it came from, and each blank becomes a question for the buyer.

The weight on the RFQ is often the wrong weight. A Casting Source column from 2022 says a foundry needs the rough casting weight, and that an estimated weight or a machined-part weight won't do. The Steel Founders' Society of America's guide to purchasing steel castings also prefers actual weight, with an estimate only when no actual exists. Metal cost and any per-pound surcharge follow that number, so the draft records where each weight came from and puts a machined weight on the question list.

Existing tooling has to be described before it can be quoted. That same column asks for the number of castings on the pattern, the pattern material, the flask size and the molding process, with photos of the cope and drag, and for each core box its size, box material and cores per box, photographed open and closed. The society's guide wants the type and condition of patterns and core boxes stated, and says drawings are still needed when patterns exist, preferably machine drawings with target points. When a customer supplies the pattern, it lists rigging, accuracy liability and delivery as things the order should spell out. The draft fills in what the package gives and turns the rest into questions.

The alloy callout decides what else is on the quote. ASTM's abstract for A536 lists ductile grades 65-45-12 and 80-55-06 as cast, 60-40-18 with a full ferritizing anneal, and 100-70-03 and 120-90-02 with quench and temper, normalize and temper or an isothermal treatment, so one wrong digit adds or drops a heat treat line. ASTM B26 says it is written for general purpose aluminum sand castings and may not cover the testing that highly loaded parts need, so a stronger requirement has to come from the buyer in words. San Antonio Water System's 2013 brass goods specification takes UNS C89520 or C89833 for parts that touch drinking water and C83600 for saddles, asks for NSF/ANSI 61 proof, and wants a no-lead mark such as NL cast or stamped in, with no paint or stickers. The draft carries each callout as written and marks any it can't square with the rest of the package.

Tolerances and inspection each come with a code that can be misread. ISO 8062:1994 graded castings CT1 to CT16, with callouts pairing a CT grade and an RMA grade. ISO 8062-3 and its companion parts replaced it in 2007, and its 2023 edition works in dimensional grades (DCTG), geometrical grades (GCTG) and machining allowance grades (RMAG), so a job revived from an old drawing and a new one may not use the same letters. The draft reproduces the callout and leaves any translation to your estimator. On inspection, ASTM A802 sets four visual acceptance levels built on graded comparators, and the society's guide wants coverage and quality level stated for ultrasonic, magnetic particle and penetrant work, with an approved shooting sketch for radiography. A drawing note that names a method without a level goes on the question list.

Your reviewer. The owner names the person who knows your quoting best, usually the lead estimator. They hold each draft against the quote that actually went out: alloy and specification, the weight used, the tooling line, machining, heat treat, inspection, and whether the question list matches what they would have asked. Put in one quote that ran on inherited tooling and one you declined.

Once your reviewer says yes, each new RFQ gets a draft quote and a question list for about 30 days, in the same layout as the test.

Your estimator checks, changes and prices every one, and sends it from your own system. No quote reaches a buyer on a draft alone, the scoring table keeps running, and any next job has a price of its own.