Four tips to help you save purchase cost significantly.
1.To buy light-weight parts from China, and buy heavy-weight parts locally.
Light-weight parts:
Miniature linear rails MGN, MGW.
Linear bearings LM, LME, LMF, LMK, LMH, LML and so on.
Linear motion carriages:SBR12UU, SBR16UU, SBR20UU, SCS8UU, SCS10UU and so on.
Ball screw 1204, 1605 and so on.
Linear guides HG15, HG20.
Heavy-weight parts:
SBR rails.
Since SBR rails are notoriously heavy, and it would make the shipping cost times higher than the sales price. I strongly suggest you to it locally, and buy SBR carriages, such as SBR12UU and SBR20UU from China.
2.To buy short parts from China, and buy longer parts locally.
There are strict package dimension restrictions on international shipment.
Each courier is friendly to deliver lower than 1000mm linear rails.
A few couriers refuse to 1200mm or longer linear rails.
When the length is bigger than 1800mm, most couriers refuse to deliver and shipping cost would be times higher.
When the length is bigger than 3000mm, I’m afraid it need to go ahead with sea shipment.
Overall you may get a good price when purchase less than 1000mm linear rails.
3.Choose connected-rail, instead of full linear rails.
What can you do if you definitely need a long linear rail and couldn’t get locally?
You could choose connected rail instead, though it would take times to combine and install, connect rails would help save shipping cost greatly.
For example, if you require 3m rails. It’s difficult to protect such a long linear rail well from broken for such a far distance delivery, and most couriers refuse to deliver long package, or charge incredibly high. In order to solve the issue, you could buy 2 1.5m rails, and ask the supplier to machine the connected position to perform as good as a full rail.
4.Choose DDP truck shipment, DDP train shipment, or DDP truck shipment, instead of express or airline shipment.
DDP refers to delivered duty paid. It means the package would deliver to your door with import duty paid in advance.
It takes 30 to 60 days for DDP train or sea shipment, but the shipment cost is times lower than express or airline, slow but cheap.
It takes 7 to 15 days by express or airline shipment, fast but expensive.
Therefore, we suggest you to make the purchase plan two moths in advance, so that you could choose a cheaper shipment solution.