Surplus Sucker

[stephendell]

Maybe with the GTAs you can drum up enough firm orders around Europe to go ahead with plans.

Nearly all the GTA turbo pipes are now in production, less one or two minor heater hoses inside the car. I just added another hose last week! However there are still one or two small 'errors' in the kits and they are in constant refinement.

The £190 pipe in question is the same on the A610 so you can buy it already. There are a few different hoses though and I would need 10 orders to produce a full Samco kit for the A610.

Similarly I can also get a GTA atmo kit produced with 10 orders. I can already supply a partial kit but the main rear coolant hoses are different.

I can believe the tooling costs. The last new hose which required tooling was only an inch or so long and the tooling was at least £50. However the tooling costs do not appear to be passed on or recovered in the susbsequent orders as they must be paid in full during development, so only production costs should be reflected in the final price.

The tooling side of it needn't be that expensive,If you take an existing pipe
you can fill it to create a male former, use this to make a sand cast ,female, which is then used to make the male former.I really can't see £1500 for a bendy bar ( can get full mould tools for less ).For most of the pipe work this would be good enough as you are not going to be mass producing.It just depends on how easy the finished pipe will come off the former,for side connections etc you would need a bit more thought but they could just be bars push -fitted into the main body.The main skill is in the wrapping/lay-up of the silicon.If you can supply the formers someone will be able to produce the finished units .

[stephendell]

I'm guessing (hoping!) that the £1500 tooling costs quoted to Peter would be for development of the complete kit i.e. 20+ hoses at an average of £75 each. More for the complex ones, less for the simple ones.

I think Lee has probably hit the nail on the head with the 'how easy the finished pipe would come off the former' comment.

Looking at the Samco hose construction the inner core is a one piece (non-wrapped) sleeve and I'm guessing the former must be designed for the complete hose to slide off as easily as possible.

I'm guessing (hoping!) that the £1500 tooling costs quoted to Peter would be for development of the complete kit i.e. 20+ hoses at an average of £75 each. More for the complex ones, less for the simple ones.

1500 quid was for a complex two bends plus 2 side pipes

I think Lee has probably hit the nail on the head with the 'how easy the finished pipe would come off the former' comment.

And that's the difficult part. Remember that ANY area of the former which isn't perfectly smooth and that includes where side pipes meet main causes a failure mode in the p[ipe made on the former.
Having been involved in Plastic injection moulding, dont' understimate the complexity of making what sounds simple work in the real world RELIABLY

Looking at the Samco hose construction the inner core is a one piece (non-wrapped) sleeve and I'm guessing the former must be designed for the complete hose to slide off as easily as possible.

yep. So side pipes have to slide INTO the main pipe former and create a seemless joint to ensure the pipe then is smooth and strong. Once cooled down the formers are then removed in order and may even be in multiple parts themselves.

Hello,

I sell a Smco Sport hose :

http://cgi.ebay.fr/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... eName=WDVW

"SAMCO" of course.... not smco

How much is postage to the UK?

15 euros maximum.