A bar order rarely ends when the material ships. Someone still has to cut it, straighten it, machine a feature, or get it packed well enough to arrive the way it left. Every extra vendor in that chain is one more quote, one more shipment, and one more place for a spec to get lost.
We’re Forte Precision Metals, Inc., an ISO 9001:2015 certified round bar supplier based in Chicago, IL. We’ve worked in precision ground and cold finish steel round bars since 1994. For manufacturers in Franklin Park and well beyond, our job is to take as much of that chain off your plate as we can.
How We Support Manufacturers From Bar Stock to Ready to Run Material
Choosing a precision ground steel bar supplier isn’t only about who has the grade in stock. It’s about how much of the work around that bar the supplier can take off your plate. Here’s how that support works on our side.
Reaching Franklin Park and Shipping Beyond It
Our shop is in Chicago, IL, and our service area is national and worldwide. If your plant is in Franklin Park, you’re served the same way as a customer across the country. If you’re shipping to a second facility in another state or overseas, the order can still start with one call to us.
Our team is available Monday through Saturday, 7 AM to 5 PM. Saturday hours help when a production schedule doesn’t stop at Friday.
Precision Ground Bar Across Nine Material Families
We stock nine product material families: stainless steel, carbon steel, alloy steel, aluminum, brass, copper and bronze, medical and surgical metal, high temperature alloys, titanium, and tool steel. Within that range, our catalog includes precision ground bar stock in stainless steel, aluminum, bronze, copper, and tool steel, plus titanium ground bar stock.
For a buyer, that range matters most when a job mixes materials. A single assembly might call for a stainless shaft, a bronze component, and a tool steel insert. Sourcing all three from one supplier means one set of paperwork and one point of contact when something changes.
Centerless Grinding Capacity for Long Bar Work
Centerless grinding is our specialty. We do it in house, up to 7″ in diameter and up to 24 feet in length, producing material with accurate roundness and polish.
That 24 foot length gives your shop options. You can take full length ground bars and cut blanks as you need them, rather than committing to cut lengths before a job’s quantities are settled.
Fewer Handoffs Between Grinding, Cutting, and Machining
This is where most of the support happens. When a ground bar needs more work before it reaches your machine, we offer those services too.
Our precision metal cutting runs on CNC enabled saws for cut to length jobs, singles or bundles. Bar straightening uses rotary straightening machines on ferrous and non ferrous bars, and pipe straightening is included. Bar chamfering produces close chamfered ends and removes burrs and sharp edges, so bars are easier to handle and load.
If the job goes beyond preparation, our machining services carry stated tolerances. Metal turning holds ±0.001 in. on axis symmetric rotational components in stainless, alloy, carbon, aluminum, and copper. Milling holds ±0.001 in. for pockets, holes, slots, and 3D surface contours. Custom machining is CNC and CAD/CAM equipped, holds ±0.005″, and handles parts up to 12″, 10″ diameter, and 8′ in length.
Polishing rounds it out, with finishes to a specific roughness average, a #8 mirror finish, electroplating, and custom stainless steel polishing.
Matching the Grade to the Part
Our grade listings tie each material to typical applications, which helps when you’re narrowing choices before talking to us. 303 stainless is austenitic, non magnetic, and listed for good machinability with added sulphur, with typical uses in nuts, bolts, and gears. 8620 alloy steel is listed as the most used carburizing alloy, with applications in camshafts, gears, and fasteners. 52100 is a high carbon chromium alloy steel listed for aircraft bearings and highly stressed parts.
Treat those listings as a starting point, not a substitute for your engineering requirements. Bring your print and application details, and we’ll talk through the grades we carry that line up with them.
Industries We Work With
We serve aerospace, automotive, construction, medical, military, oil and gas, and food processing customers. These industries tend to involve documented specs and repeat orders, which is where an ISO 9001:2015 certified quality system and a broad material range pay off over time.
Packaging for the Trip to Your Dock
Ground and polished surfaces are part of what you’re paying for, so packaging isn’t an afterthought. We pack in cardboard tubing, wooden boxes, wood crates, paper wrapping, UPS packages, and custom wood boxes. Let us know how the material will be received and stored, and we’ll pack it to match.
What to Have Ready When You Reach Out
A complete request helps us quote the full job instead of just the bar. Have these ready:
- The material family and grade
- Diameter and length
- Any tolerance or finish callouts from your print
- Every process the bar needs before it reaches your machine
- The packaging you want and the delivery destination
Let’s Look at Your Next Job Together
If you run a shop in Franklin Park or anywhere else, and you’re tired of coordinating three vendors for one bar, call us at +1 (847) 451-8888, Monday through Saturday, 7 AM to 5 PM. You can also send your specs through our request a quote page, and we’ll walk through how much of the job we can take on here.
FAQs
Where is Forte Precision Metals located, and do you serve Franklin Park, IL?
We’re based in Chicago, IL. Our service area is national and worldwide, so manufacturers in Franklin Park are within it.
Which materials do you offer as precision ground bar?
We list precision ground bar in stainless steel, aluminum, bronze, copper, and tool steel, as well as titanium ground bar stock. Altogether, we stock nine product material families.
What centerless grinding sizes can you handle?
We centerless grind in house up to 7″ in diameter and up to 24 feet in length.
Can you cut, straighten, or machine bars before they ship?
Yes. We offer CNC saw cutting to length, rotary bar straightening, bar chamfering, metal turning and milling to ±0.001 in., custom machining to ±0.005″, and polishing.
