Ironside Pumps is an independent manufacturer of moulds, foundry patterns and made-to-drawing pump components, working from its own shop in northern China. We have been cutting tooling since 1993 and supplying finished components to customers who would rather buy the part than the mould.
Most of our work arrives as a drawing, a worn part, or both. Slurry handling is unforgiving — impellers, throat bushes, liners and casings wear out on a schedule, and the tooling that made them is often older than the people running the plant. What we do is rebuild that geometry accurately and hold it, so the next set of parts fits the same way the first set did.
We are a manufacturer, not a trading company. The mould shop, the machining capacity and the inspection are ours, and the person you correspond with can walk to the machine. That matters most when something is wrong: a dimension query gets answered by someone who can measure the part that afternoon.
Around forty people work here, across engineering, CNC machining, fitting, finishing and inspection. We are not the largest shop in the region and do not try to be — the work we take on is chosen so that it can be supervised properly.
Buyers get burned by suppliers who describe a whole supply chain as if it were one building. Here is the actual split, so you can audit the part that matters to you.
We do not operate a furnace and we do not claim to. What we do control is the tooling the metal goes into and the inspection it has to pass afterwards — which is where casting jobs usually go wrong.
Most legacy pump tooling gets replaced without a drawing in sight. A worn part is scanned, the model rebuilt from the scan, wear allowance added back where it belongs, and the tooling cut from the rebuilt model. We can scan at your plant or work from a part shipped to us.
Buying tooling or castings from an unfamiliar supplier on another continent is a real risk, and we would rather you resolved it early than after the deposit.
Ask and we will arrange a live video walkthrough of the shop — the machines cutting, the part on the table, the measuring being done. No appointment weeks in advance; a working day or two is usually enough.
Visitors are welcome at the works, and we will help with the invitation letter if your visa needs one. If you already use an inspection agency in China, we will host them instead.
A single part, or one mould, is a perfectly sensible first order. Several long-running customers began with one impeller.
Dimensional inspection is recorded and issued with the shipment. Material certificates and test reports are provided where the specification calls for them.
EXW works in China by default, other Incoterms by agreement. Payment is 30% deposit with the order and 70% before shipment. Lead time is typically 25–30 working days depending on tooling complexity. Goods are packed in export-grade fumigated crates to ISPM 15. Correspondence is in English, seven days a week, 08:30–17:30 China Standard Time.