Methodology & Verification Tiers
Current revision: July 2026. This page is the complete, public description of how listings are built and ordered. There is no editorial layer and no paid placement.
What gets listed
US companies that make parts, tooling, or molds to order — CNC machining, metal fabrication and stamping, tool & die, and injection-mold job shops. Sources are public pages the companies themselves control or appear on by choice:
| Source | What it contributes | Access basis |
|---|---|---|
| AMBA "Find a Mold Builder" directory | Mold builders: location, website, machines, press-tonnage bands, materials, published certifications | Public directory; robots.txt permits indexing |
| PMA district member lists | Metalforming companies: name, city, state, membership | Public pages; robots.txt permits crawling (10s crawl delay honored) |
| NTMA member pages | Precision machining & tooling companies: name, website, membership | Public pages listed in the association's own sitemap |
| The shop's own website | Capability, material, and certification statements | Public homepage, robots.txt honored, one page per shop |
Association member lists mix in service firms (law, insurance, banking). We include only companies whose names carry manufacturing signals; anything mis-scoped is removed free via the correction path.
How capability tags work
A shop is tagged with a process (say, Wire EDM) or a material only when a public source the shop controls states it: its association capability listing, its own website, or its own company name. Tags are never inferred from industry, never extrapolated, and never sold. Each profile links its sources.
Certification verification tiers
Certifications rot quietly: shops keep lapsed cert logos on their sites for years. Our answer is a dated stamp, not a logo.
| Tier | Meaning | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Published-by-company | The company currently states the certification on its own website or association listing. We show the exact date we last saw it and remove the tag when the statement disappears. | Live — every stamp on this site today |
| Registry-verified | Cross-checked against the issuing registry (IAQG OASIS for AS9100, SAM.gov entity records, DDTC for ITAR). | Pending registry access; stamps will upgrade automatically and show the registry check date |
An "ITAR Registered" tag means the company publicly states current ITAR registration. The State Department does not publish the registrant list, so this tag is always company-stated; treat it accordingly and verify in your supplier audit.
Monthly re-verification
Every source is re-crawled monthly. Tags whose supporting statement has vanished are dropped; the site-wide revision date in the footer tells you when the last sweep ran. A listing that says "checked July 2026" means exactly that — nothing more, nothing less. A verification is never an endorsement, a quality judgement, or a guarantee.
Ranking
Listing pages order shops by published, objective criteria only, applied in this order as tie-breaks:
- Number of published quality certifications (more first)
- Number of verified capability tags (more first)
- Trade-association memberships — NTMA / PMA / AMBA (more first)
- Alphabetical (final tie-break)
No star ratings, no reviews, no editorial "best of", no pay-to-rank. A claimed or paid listing gets a verified badge and self-service updates — it never moves up a ranking.
What we are not
We are not a marketplace, broker, or sourcing agent. We take no commission, hold no RFQs, and never sit between you and the shop. Contact information on every profile goes straight to the shop. We are not affiliated with NTMA, PMA, AMBA, or any certification body; association names identify membership facts only.