About Forge Horizons

We find obsolete and hard-to-find industrial control parts for plants that have a line stopped, and we get them moving the same day. That is the whole business.

Who you are dealing with

We are not VAT registered, so no VAT is charged on our invoices. If that changes, the number will appear here and on every invoice.

How the money works

You pay in full before we despatch. We know that is the opposite of what a purchasing department normally wants, so here is the honest reasoning: it means there is no credit application, no account to open and no week of paperwork between your line stopping and the part moving. It also means we can quote parts no distributor stocks, because we are not carrying the inventory risk of holding them.

What it means for you: nothing is owed until you accept a written quote, and the quote states the exact condition of the exact item before you commit a penny.

What we are not

• Not an authorised distributor. We have no agency or distribution agreement with Rockwell Automation, Siemens, Omron, Mitsubishi Electric, Schneider Electric or any other manufacturer. Their names and part numbers appear on this site solely to identify the goods we supply.
• Not a stockist. We do not hold inventory. We source each item for the order, which is why we can find discontinued parts and also why we confirm availability with the supplier before giving you a date.
• Not an engineering consultancy. Our obsolescence guidesshare what we learn from sourcing, but the responsibility for suitability, commissioning and safety is yours or your integrator's.
• Not a supplier for safety-related functions. We do not supply goods for safety instrumented systems, emergency stop circuits or protective interlocks unless we have confirmed valid certification in writing for that specific item.

What we commit to

• Condition in writing, before you pay. New sealed, new surplus, refurbished, used and tested, or used and untested. It goes on the invoice as a contractual term — not as marketing.
• We will not sell untested stock for a stopped line. If the only unit we can find is unverified, we tell you rather than gamble your restart on it.
• A fast no. If we cannot source it, you hear so within hours. Your time is the scarce thing during an outage, not our pipeline.
• 30-day functional warranty on everything we supply, and a full refund on any item that turns out to be counterfeit or materially misdescribed.
• We will tell you when not to buy from us. Several of our obsolescence guides say outright that migrating beats buying spares. We would rather lose the order than sell you the wrong answer.

Why this exists

Manufacturers withdraw control hardware long before the machines it runs are retired. Siemens stopped selling the S7-300 in 2023; Rockwell ended the SLC 500 years ago. Meanwhile the installed base is enormous and still running, because replacing a controller means rewriting the program and rewiring the panel. When one of those parts fails, the official answer is a twelve-week lead time or a migration project — neither of which helps at 3am with a line down.

The parts exist. They are in decommissioned panels, surplus dealers' shelves and spares cupboards across the world. Our job is knowing where, and being quick about it. We currently list 938 part numbers and source well beyond that.

Selling, not buying?

If you are decommissioning a line, the control gear coming out of the panel is what another plant is stopped over. Tell us what you have →

Request a quote Read the terms of sale

Forge Horizons by Mike Stranger Ltd. All sales are subject to our terms of sale.