Natalia Sephton, Author at M&R Engineering

July 1, 2026

contract-manufacturing-machine-shop-america-250th-anniversary

Orange County, California — July 4, 2026

This July 4th, the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary of independence. Two and a half centuries of freedom, innovation, and industrial ingenuity that transformed thirteen coastal colonies into the world’s most productive economy. At M&R Engineering, we have spent 53 of those years contributing to that legacy — as a precision contract manufacturing machine shop founded in Orange County, California, in 1973.

We did not build the rockets or the aircraft carriers. But for more than five decades, we have built the parts that go inside them — tight-tolerance brass fittings, Swiss-machined stainless shafts, precision-bored aluminum housings, and high-volume screw-machined components that engineers across aerospace, defense, medical device, and semiconductor industries specify when performance and reliability are non-negotiable.

As America marks this historic milestone, we want to reflect on what it means to be a domestic contract manufacturing machine shop in 2026 — where we have come from, how our industry has changed, and why American precision manufacturing matters more today than at any point in our history.

“American manufacturing is not just an industry. It is a covenant — between the people who make things and the nation those things serve.”

From Orange County Roots: How a Contract Manufacturing Machine Shop Grows Over 53 Years

M&R Engineering was established in 1973 in Orange County, California — at a moment when Southern California was one of the most vibrant manufacturing regions in the country. The aerospace programs at major defense contractors were generating strong demand for precision machined components. The region’s industrial base was deep and skilled. And a generation of machinists and shop owners were building businesses to serve it.

Our contract manufacturing machine shop started with multi-spindle screw machining — producing high-volume brass and aluminum components for local industrial customers. Over the decades that followed, we expanded steadily and deliberately: adding Swiss CNC turning capability, building out CNC milling and multi-axis turning, bringing precision plastic machining in-house, and earning the certifications our most demanding customers require — AS9100, ISO 9001, ITAR registration, and DDTC compliance.

Each investment reflected the same conviction: that a domestic contract manufacturing machine shop could compete on quality, reliability, and responsiveness — not just price. Fifty-three years of continued growth have validated that belief.

June 2025 — New Facility in Ontario, CA
In June 2025, M&R Engineering opened a second California facility dedicated to screw machining operations in Ontario, CA. This expansion deepens our production capacity for high-volume precision components and strengthens lead time performance across both facilities. It is the most significant investment in our company’s history — and a direct expression of our confidence in American contract manufacturing.

What Precision Contract Manufacturing Means — and Who We Serve

The term contract manufacturing machine shop describes a broad range of capabilities, so it is worth being specific about what M&R Engineering actually does.

At its core, contract manufacturing means producing precision components to customer-supplied drawings and specifications, on behalf of companies that design products but rely on specialized outside shops to manufacture them. Our customers bring us engineering drawings — for a prototype run or a multi-year production program — and our team produces the parts to print, on schedule, with complete quality documentation and traceability.

Our capabilities include Swiss CNC machining for complex small-diameter parts requiring tolerances to ±0.0002″; multi-spindle screw machining for high-volume turned components in brass, aluminum, stainless steel, and other alloys; CNC milling and turning for prismatic and cylindrical components; and precision plastic machining in PEEK, Delrin, UHMW, Torlon, Ultem, and other engineering plastics for medical, semiconductor, and electrical applications.

We serve customers across aerospace and defense, medical devices, semiconductor equipment, electronics, and commercial industrial markets — many of them Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers to major OEMs who depend on M&R Engineering’s quality systems and delivery consistency as a critical link in their supply chains.

Why Domestic Contract Manufacturing Matters in America’s 250th Year

The 250th anniversary of American independence arrives at a moment when the strategic importance of domestic contract manufacturing machine shops has never been more clearly understood. The supply chain disruptions of 2020 through 2022 exposed the fragility of over-reliance on offshore manufacturing for critical components. The reshoring movement that followed has brought real programs and new customers to domestic precision manufacturers — including M&R Engineering.

Tariff and trade policy shifts in 2025 and 2026 have further accelerated this trend. Companies that moved production offshore in the 1990s and 2000s are actively rebuilding domestic supplier networks, seeking contract manufacturing machine shops with proven quality systems, established certifications, and the capacity to support production ramps on American soil.

For our customers, the value of a domestic contract manufacturing partner is straightforward. Your parts are made in Southern California — at our Orange County facility and our new Ontario screw machining plant — by American machinists, on equipment our team controls and maintains. No ocean freight delays. No customs uncertainty. No 14-hour time zone gap when you need to discuss a drawing revision. Just a reliable manufacturing partner, 53 years in business, with your schedule and quality requirements at the center of everything we do.

A Thank You to the Customers Who Made 53 Years Possible

None of this history belongs to M&R Engineering alone. It belongs equally to the customers who have trusted us with their most critical programs over the past five decades.

Every engineer who brought us a drawing and trusted us to hold the tolerance. Every purchasing manager who chose a domestic contract manufacturing machine shop when an offshore quote was lower — because they understood that quality, on-time delivery, and a reliable American partner were worth more than the price difference. Every program manager who called with an urgent delivery requirement and trusted us to execute without compromise.

Your standards are what keep precision contract manufacturers like M&R Engineering sharp. Your industries — aerospace, defense, medical, semiconductor — do not accept “close enough.” That requirement for exactness, applied consistently over 53 years, is what defines us as a company.

As America celebrates 250 years of independence this July 4th, we celebrate a smaller but deeply meaningful milestone of our own: 53 years of showing up, making precision parts, and earning the trust of the companies that build this country’s most critical products. From our 1973 founding in Orange County to our newest facility in Ontario — thank you for being part of our story. We look forward to building the next 53 years together.

Partner with a Contract Manufacturing Machine Shop You Can Count On

Two California locations. 53 years of precision manufacturing experience. AS9100 and ISO 9001 certified. ITAR registered. Ready to quote your next program.

Request a Quote Contact Us

June 5, 2026

Every Brass Part You Buy Just Got More Expensive with Copper at Record High

Brass is copper — typically 60 to 90 percent of it by weight. When copper hits record highs, brass rod prices follow immediately and in lockstep. If any of your precision-machined components are made from brass, bronze, or other copper alloys, the current market environment is adding real cost to every part you order.

Copper has always been at the heart of precision machining — and nowhere more directly than in brass components. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, with copper content typically ranging from 60% to over 90% depending on the grade. Free-machining C360 brass, the workhorse of screw machining shops, is approximately 61.5% copper. That means when LME copper climbs to $13,000 per tonne, brass rod pricing climbs with it — dollar for dollar, pound for pound. Brass fittings, bushings, shafts, end caps, connectors, valve seats — these everyday components at M&R Engineering are all directly exposed. For years, copper-alloy pricing moved in predictable cycles. That era has ended.

What the market is experiencing today is structural, not cyclical. There is no seasonal dip coming that will reset brass prices back to where they were two years ago. The convergence of years of underinvestment in new copper mining capacity, accelerating demand from AI data centers, EV infrastructure, and defense spending, declining ore grades at major copper mines globally, and a new national-security framing of copper as a strategic resource have created a fundamentally different cost environment — one that flows directly into your brass component pricing.

“Copper has entered a new era — no longer just a cyclical industrial commodity, but a strategic asset critical to digital infrastructure and the global energy transition.”

— Crux Investor, January 2026

What is driving prices to record levels?

The London Metal Exchange three-month copper contract is trading near $12,965–$13,000 per tonne, with markets assigning a scarcity premium to available inventory. COMEX copper opened 2026 at $5.69/lb and is trading at $6.42/lb as of June 1 — a sustained move driven in large part by structural demand shifts. Demand from AI data centers alone is significant: when you account for power delivery, transformers, cabling, and redundancy, the copper load in a single large data center facility is enormous — and hundreds are being built globally.

On the supply side, the picture is equally challenging. Global visible copper inventory, while elevated in the US, is tightening internationally. A 50% US tariff on semi-finished copper and copper-intensive derivatives has disrupted normal trade flows. And the June 30, 2026 US refined-copper tariff review deadline has been driving pre-positioning behavior that further distorts pricing.

Why supply can’t catch up

New copper mines take 10–20 years from discovery to production. Capital spending is rising at major miners, but the supply response will take years to arrive — meaning structurally elevated prices are the baseline scenario through the late 2020s.

The demand that won’t stop

Defense spending, grid modernization, EV manufacturing, and AI infrastructure are all less price-sensitive than traditional copper buyers. This shifts the demand profile toward streams that absorb price increases without reducing consumption.

Goldman Sachs has published a forecast range of $11,000–$13,000+ per metric ton for 2026. That $2,000/MT swing directly translates into brass rod price volatility — because brass rod suppliers pass copper cost changes through on a near-real-time basis. A program you quoted six months ago at one price may be repriced significantly today, not because machining costs changed, but because the copper content of every bar of brass stock is worth more.

How brass pricing works — and why copper is the lever

When you purchase a machined brass part, you are purchasing a component whose single largest cost input is copper. Brass rod suppliers price their material with a copper content surcharge tied directly to the LME spot price, updated on short cycles. A $1,000/tonne move in copper translates to a proportional increase in brass rod cost — and brass rod is typically 40–60% of the total part cost on screw-machined components. At current copper prices, that surcharge is substantial and is being felt across every active brass program.

At M&R Engineering, brass and copper-alloy components represent a significant share of production — from brass shafts, bushings, and front bushings for automotive and aerospace customers, to brass end caps for electronics and brass shoulder screws for specialty industries. Swiss machining and Davenport multi-spindle production also includes copper-alloy work across semiconductor, medical, and defense programs. These are high-copper-content parts, and raw material is the dominant cost driver on all of them.

Three ways to protect your programs right now

1. Substitute engineering plastics where technically feasible. For insulating bushings, connectors, electronic parts, spacers, and wear components — precision-machined engineering plastics like PEEK, Delrin, Torlon, and Ultem provide comparable or superior performance at a fraction of the material cost, completely insulated from copper pricing. M&R Engineering machines all of these materials in-house.

2. Evaluate aluminum alloys as a copper substitute. In certain power-delivery, automotive, and HVAC applications, aluminum has become more economically viable as copper remains elevated. Goldman Sachs specifically cited aluminum substitution as a strategic priority at current copper price levels.

3. Optimize part design to reduce material volume. Our engineering team can review drawings to identify opportunities to reduce weight, optimize cross-sections, or redesign features — reducing the amount of copper alloy in each part without compromising function. This has direct cost impact at current material prices.

M&R Engineering · Program Review

Your Brass & Copper-Alloy Programs: Let’s Review Together

M&R Engineering’s expertise in CNC Swiss, Davenport screw machining, and multi-spindle production across brass, aluminum, and stainless makes us uniquely positioned to help customers optimize programs in this material cost environment. Whether your parts are currently in brass and could benefit from a material or design review, our team in Orange is ready to work with you — at no charge.

Request a Program Review Contact Us

The copper market will remain volatile through at least the end of 2026, and the structural drivers — supply deficits, AI infrastructure demand, EV growth, and tariff uncertainty — are not going away quickly. Because brass pricing is directly and immediately tied to copper, every brass component program your company runs is exposed. The customers who will be best positioned are those who act now: reviewing alloy specs, consolidating volumes, and exploring alternatives where technically feasible.

We are in this with you. Contact your M&R Engineering account representative or reach us at 800.454.3103 and let’s put a plan together before the fall ramp kicks in.

March 10, 2026March 10, 2026

Understanding the Cost of CMMC 2.0 Certification—and Why Proper CUI Labeling in DoD RFPs Matters

Understanding the Cost of CMMC 2.0 Certification—and Why Proper CUI Labeling in DoD RFPs Matters

As the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) strengthens cybersecurity requirements across the supply chain, Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) 2.0 is becoming a critical compliance requirement for contractors and subcontractors. For manufacturers, engineering firms, and technology providers working with the DoD, achieving certification is no longer optional—it is essential to remain eligible for defense contracts.

However, the cost of CMMC 2.0 compliance can vary significantly depending on the organization’s size, current cybersecurity posture, and the level of certification required. Just as important—and often overlooked—is the proper identification and labeling of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) at the Request for Proposal (RFP) stage, which directly affects compliance scope and costs.

Below is an overview of what contractors need to know.

The Cost of CMMC 2.0 Certification

CMMC 2.0 introduces three certification levels, but most DoD contractors will fall under Level 2, which aligns with the requirements of NIST SP 800-171 and applies to companies handling CUI.

There are four Typical Cost Components

First, Gap Assessment and Readiness. Organizations must first assess how their current cybersecurity practices compare to CMMC requirements. Typical cost: Small companies: $10,000 – $40,000, and Mid-sized organizations: $40,000 – $100,000+

Second, Remediation and Implementation, which is often the largest expense. It may involve: Multi-factor authentication systems, Security monitoring tools, Endpoint protection, and logging systems, Secure network segmentation, Policy and procedure development, Employee cybersecurity training, Typical cost range: Small contractors: $50,000 – $150,000, and Mid-sized manufacturers or engineering firms: $150,000 – $500,000+

Third, Third-Party Assessment (C3PAO Audit). For Level 2 certification, many companies will require a formal assessment by a Certified Third-Party Assessment Organization (C3PAO). Typical audit cost: $20,000 – $60,000, depending on company size and complexity.

The Fourth cost is Ongoing Maintenance. CMMC compliance is not a one-time effort. Companies must maintain documentation, monitoring systems, and internal controls. Annual costs may include: Security software licensing, Managed security services, Internal compliance resources, and Continuous monitoring. Typical ongoing cost: $20,000 – $100,000+ annually

For many small and mid-sized manufacturers in the defense supply chain, total initial investment often falls between $100,000 and $500,000.

Why CUI Identification at the RFP Stage Is Critical

One of the most significant cost drivers in CMMC compliance is whether a contractor handles Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). Unfortunately, many DoD solicitations and prime contractor RFPs do not clearly identify when CUI is involved.

This creates several challenges.

First, Compliance Scope Becomes Unclear. If an RFP does not clearly specify whether CUI will be shared, contractors must assume the possibility that CMMC Level 2 may apply. This forces companies to prepare for higher security requirements even when the program may not actually involve sensitive data. Clear labeling of CUI at the RFP stage allows contractors to: accurately assess cybersecurity requirements, scope infrastructure and compliance investments, and determine whether to pursue the opportunity.

Secondly, it introduces Unnecessary Compliance Costs. Without proper CUI designation, contractors may invest in costly cybersecurity controls that are not required for the work being performed. For example, a machine shop manufacturing parts from fully defined technical drawings without sensitive design data may not require CUI handling procedures. Yet if CUI status is unclear, the contractor may still need to implement Level 2 compliance systems, dramatically increasing costs. Proper classification protects both the government and the supply chain by ensuring security measures are proportional to the data being protected.

Lastly, Improver or Lack and Labeling Reduced Supply Chain Participation. Many small and mid-sized manufacturers are essential to the defense industrial base but may struggle to absorb large cybersecurity compliance costs without clarity on requirements.

When CUI is clearly identified in RFPs: Contractors can evaluate return on investment, Primes can select suppliers that are properly certified, The supply chain can plan compliance timelines. Without transparency, smaller suppliers may exit the defense market entirely, reducing competition and innovation.

Best Practices for DoD Primes and Contracting Officers

To support a healthy defense supply chain and effective cybersecurity implementation, RFPs should:

Clearly identify CUI requirements, including:

Whether CUI will be transmitted, stored, or processed
What specific data elements are considered CUI
Applicable DFARS clauses (such as DFARS 252.204-7012)

Provide clear data labeling, ensuring contractors understand what information requires protection.

Define cybersecurity expectations early, allowing suppliers to determine their certification requirements before bidding.

October 10, 2025October 10, 2025

M&R Engineering Hosts Local Highschool Students on Manufacturing Day 2025

M&R Engineering gives back to the community — M&R Engineering inspires future talent

“Inspire manufacturing talent, believe in the power of education, and the importance of giving back to our community” are critical areas of focus at M&R Engineering.

Today, in partnership with VitalLink, we had the privilege of hosting students from a local high school as part of National Manufacturing Day (MFG Day). Our team introduced them to the inner workings of a contract manufacturing company. In addition, we showcased cutting-edge technology—including robotics and artificial intelligence. Lastly, we explored the wide range of career opportunities within the manufacturing industry.

Manufacturing companies across the country use MFG Day to inspire and attract the next generation of talent. With the current shortage of skilled professionals in the industry, these initiatives are super critical. Through hands-on experiences and real-world exposure, M&R Engineering hopes to ignite interest and passion in future Industrial Engineers, Mechanical Engineers, Mastercam Programmers, and CNC Machine Operators.

One of our Core Values at M&R Engineering is maintaining a Learner’s Mindset. We are committed to the growth and development of our team. For example, we invest in formal apprenticeship programs, classroom-based training, and lean manufacturing workshops. Likewise, we offer hands-on learning opportunities. Check out our Careers page.

During Manufacturing Month, Vital Link partners with local businesses to offer high school students a behind-the-scenes look at real-world operations. These “show and tell” experiences provide students with firsthand exposure to how businesses function day-to-day. As a result, students gain a clearer understanding of potential career paths and job opportunities within various industries

M&R Engineering is proud to play a role in shaping the future of manufacturing. We look forward to continuing our efforts to educate, empower, and inspire future manufacturing talent.

October 8, 2021

Robots and Automation in Machine Shop

Using Robots for Automation in Machine Shop — Delivering precision machined components through automation

M&R Engineering is investing in the future with automation with its first Robot. 2020-2021 Covid 19 years exposed a lot of challenges finding a workforce to support manufacturing in California. As a solution to this problem, M&R Engineering is using a collaborative robot (Cobot) to load parts into our CNC Lathe machines. This is a great milestone for M&R Engineering on the road to automation. Robot is a great tool for automation in the machine shop. Our Robot increases productivity and throughput to meet the growing demands of our customers while also improving our quality and safety.

Benefits of Using Robots for Automation of the Machine Shop

Increase productivity: Cobots are easily programmed to perform multiple functions. This Robot can be moved from machine to machine based on the workload. This is especially important for the M&R Engineering Lathe department that specializes in a high-mix environment.

Improve quality: Unlike operators, mechanical Robots are extremely consistent when it comes to repeatability. If your process is repeatable, the Robot can operate without problems day in and day out. Cobot will stop and force you to fix the variation; hence, delivering better quality.

Improve safety: Robots are a great solution for automation in machine shops. Robots perform high-risk or high repeatability tasks. Robots are not susceptible to repetitive motion injury. In addition, Robots do not experience fatigue. Our Robot takes care of the simple tasks of loading and unloading a machine. This allows our operators to run additional machines; hence, increasing productivity.

Provide growth opportunities for employees: By automating boring and repetitive tasks with the help of a Robot, employees can focus more on work responsibilities that require critical thinking and creativity like setting up CNC Lathes and Robot programming. These are growth opportunities for our employees that will lead to increased job satisfaction and improved work performance.

In Conclusion, we value progress and innovation in the manufacturing industry at M&R Engineering. We address the most difficult precision machining challenges in the aerospace, chemical, military, semiconductor, water management, automotive, communication, healthcare, commercial, and tech industries while helping our customers succeed!