The short answer
How drawings actually leak
The dramatic version, a competitor stealing a design, is rarer than the ordinary version. The ordinary version looks like this:
- Silent sub-contracting. You send a drawing to a UK shop. The shop is busy, or the price is tight, so it sends the job to a partner abroad. You are never told. Your title block, with your company name, part number and revision, travels with it.
- Quoting far and wide. Some platforms and brokers send your file to many workshops to get a price. Each copy is a copy you no longer control.
- The unenforceable NDA. A signed NDA with a supplier in a jurisdiction where you cannot realistically bring a claim is paper. The cost of enforcing it exceeds the value of the drawing, and everybody involved knows it.
None of these require bad intent. They require only that nobody in the chain is accountable to you for where the file goes.
Why TrueNorth places no work in China
We are open about this being a position rather than a calculation. Our customers' drawings are the most valuable thing that passes through our hands. The mutual NDA we sign with every customer only means something if we can hold every party downstream to the same standard. In China we cannot, so we do not place work there. Where a customer needs overseas capacity for higher volumes, we use vetted capacity in jurisdictions where agreements can be enforced, and we tell you which before you commit. Our full reasoning, with the landed-cost arithmetic, is in the UK versus China guide.
What protects your drawing at each step
| Step | What happens to the drawing | What protects it |
|---|---|---|
| Enquiry | You upload the drawing to TrueNorth | Mutual NDA offered on the quote form and signed before review; the file is held in TrueNorth's own Microsoft 365 tenant, not on a platform |
| DFM review | A TrueNorth engineer reads it | Nobody outside TrueNorth sees it at this stage |
| Quoting | Geometry goes to a shortlisted shop | Title block scrubbed first: the shop sees the part, not your company, your part number or your customer |
| Manufacture | The selected shop makes the part | Vetted UK-first network; the shop is contractually bound to TrueNorth; no onward sub-contracting without TrueNorth's agreement |
| Repeat orders | The same drawing revision is used again | Locked to the revision on your parts shelf in the Digital Factory; access separated per company at database level |
What to ask any supplier, including us
- Do you sub-contract, and will you tell me before you do?
- Which countries could my drawing physically travel to?
- Is your NDA mutual, and is it signed before you read the drawing or after?
- What is removed from my drawing before it goes to a workshop for quoting?
- Who holds the file, and on whose system?
A supplier who answers all five in writing is one you can work with. A supplier who answers "don't worry" is telling you something.
Drawings and IP: the questions buyers ask
No. TrueNorth places no work in China as a matter of policy, because a non-disclosure agreement that cannot be enforced is not protection. Your drawing is covered by a mutual NDA before review, the title block is scrubbed before a shop sees it for quoting, and the shop that makes the part is part of a vetted UK-first network bound to TrueNorth.
Yes. A mutual NDA is offered on the quote form and signed before the drawing is reviewed. Drawings are held in TrueNorth's own Microsoft 365 tenant, not on a marketplace platform.
Not at quoting stage with TrueNorth Engineering. The title block is scrubbed before a drawing goes to a shop, so the shop sees the geometry, material and tolerances, and not your company, your part number or your customer.
For higher volumes, where a customer wants it, TrueNorth Engineering uses vetted overseas capacity in jurisdictions where agreements can be enforced, and says which before you commit. TrueNorth does not place work in China.
Ask, and get the answer in writing: do you sub-contract, will you tell me first, and which countries could the drawing travel to. Shops bound to TrueNorth may not sub-contract onward without TrueNorth's agreement, and you contract with TrueNorth, so the answer is one person's responsibility.