Compliance · ITAR
ITAR registered machine shop
BELL Machine Works is an ITAR-registered 5-axis CNC machine shop in Gilroy, in the San Francisco Bay Area. We machine export-controlled parts in engineering plastics and metals, one-off prototypes through production, with controlled technical data held in a separate, isolated Microsoft GCC High environment on U.S. soil and handled by U.S. persons only. CAGE 18MB0.
Registered, not "ITAR certified"
Search for an ITAR machine shop and half the results say "ITAR certified". There is no such certificate. A manufacturer of defense articles registers with the U.S. Department of State, Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC), and is then responsible for handling controlled data and hardware in compliance with the regulations. Registration is a fact you can check; "certified" is a word.
We are registered with DDTC, and our CAGE code is 18MB0, which takes thirty seconds to look up in SAM.gov. What registration does not tell you is where your drawing will sit and who can open it. That is the part we built the shop around.
Infrastructure
Two environments, not one system with permissions
The common ITAR failure at a small shop is not a drawing ending up in the wrong country. It is a controlled drawing sitting next to commercial job data in a system that was never scoped to hold it, with folder permissions standing in for a boundary.
We run two environments. Commercial work lives in ProShop ERP. ITAR-controlled work lives in a separate, isolated environment on Microsoft GCC High, Microsoft's U.S. sovereign cloud for defense and export-controlled data, and controlled technical data never enters the commercial system. Administration of the environment is restricted to U.S. persons. The boundary is architectural; it does not depend on anyone remembering which folder a file belongs in.
How an ITAR job runs here
From the moment a controlled drawing arrives to the day the parts ship.
| How it arrives | By email to rfq@bellmachineworks.us, the ITAR channel, never through the website form or a .com address. |
| Where it sits | A Microsoft GCC High tenant, physically on U.S. soil. Drawings, models and job records for controlled work stay there. |
| Who opens it | U.S. persons, on U.S. soil. |
| Where it is machined | Gilroy, California, by U.S. persons, on our own machines. |
| Where it is finished | Anodize, chem film, passivation and plating through an ITAR-registered finishing house, so the compliance chain does not break at the last operation. |
| What ships with it | Material certifications with lot traceability, a Certificate of Conformance and dimensional inspection from our in-house CMM. First article inspection reports on request. |
| What we never do | Publish images, drawings or descriptions of customer parts. NDAs signed as standard, yours or ours. |
Not sure if your part is ITAR-controlled?
Plenty of engineers building spacecraft, launch vehicles, drones, sensors and robots have never had to ask. The short version: the ITAR covers defense articles on the U.S. Munitions List and the technical data used to make them. Some space and unmanned-system hardware is on that list, some is controlled under the Export Administration Regulations instead, and some is not controlled at all.
That classification belongs to whoever owns the design, usually your program office, prime contractor or export compliance lead. We cannot classify your part for you. What we can do is make the channel decision simple:
- The drawing carries an export-control marking, or came from a defense program. Send it to rfq@bellmachineworks.us.
- Your compliance team has confirmed it is not controlled. Use the RFQ form.
- You are not sure yet. Send it to rfq@bellmachineworks.us. Everything that arrives there is handled as ITAR-controlled, whatever it turns out to be.
What we machine under ITAR
Defense platforms
Hardware for drones and unmanned aircraft, submarines and unmanned marine systems, ground vehicles and the sensors and electronics that go with them. Defense programs →
Flight programs
Prototypes and production hardware for launch vehicles and propulsion, satellites and spacecraft, and avionics, where the program carries export-control requirements. Aerospace →
Engineering plastics
PTFE, Delrin, polycarbonate, PEEK, Ultem, Torlon, Vespel and UHMW: the materials most shops would rather not quote, at ±0.001" standard tolerance. PTFE machining →
Metals
Aluminum 6061, 7075 and 2024, stainless, titanium Grade 5 and Inconel, with MIL-STD-130 laser marking and finishing to MIL specification. Aluminum machining →
Standard tolerance ±0.001", tightest held ±0.0002". No minimum order: one part is a perfectly fine order. Our quality system is compliant with ISO 9001 and AS9100D, and third-party certification audits are scheduled for Q1 2027.
ITAR questions
Is there such a thing as ITAR certification?
No. There is no ITAR certificate and no body that issues one. A manufacturer registers with the U.S. Department of State, Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC), and then has to run its business in compliance with the regulations. When a shop calls itself "ITAR certified", what it can actually show you is a DDTC registration. Ask for that.
Does my part need an ITAR-registered shop?
If the part is a defense article on the U.S. Munitions List, or is made from ITAR-controlled technical data, the shop that manufactures it must be registered with DDTC, even if nothing is exported. Whether your part is controlled is decided by your program or your export compliance team, not by the machine shop.
We build spacecraft or robots, not weapons. Does ITAR apply to us?
It can. Some spacecraft, launch vehicle, sensor and unmanned-system hardware falls under the ITAR; some of it is controlled under the Export Administration Regulations instead, and some is not controlled at all. The classification of your design decides. If you are not sure, ask your compliance lead before you send the drawing, and use our ITAR channel in the meantime.
How do I check that a shop is really ITAR registered?
Ask for confirmation of its DDTC registration and its CAGE code, then look the CAGE code up in SAM.gov yourself. Ours is 18MB0. Then ask where your drawings will be stored and who can open them, because registration alone does not answer that.
How do I send you an ITAR-controlled drawing?
Email it to rfq@bellmachineworks.us, our ITAR channel, which runs in an isolated Microsoft GCC High environment. Do not upload controlled files through the website form or send them to a .com address. An account manager will get back to you quickly.
Send the controlled drawing to the controlled channel.
rfq@bellmachineworks.us for ITAR work. Everything else through the RFQ form.
Send an ITAR RFQ