Chinese Manufactured Wastegate and BOV

[shanghai_todd]

Well guys I have just got back from my world trip and this time while I was in China I decided to make some supplier contacts for the performance parts market, this is not my typical sourcing role but figured it would be interesting to check out and to learn how they make their items so cheap

Overall the facories that I visited were all basically the same, conrete building well ventilated with 1~2 CNC machines and some work benches (around a 20 person operation). 1 site that i took intest in was a supplier that manufactures wastegates, BOV and fuel pressure reisers. I was very impressed with the quality of the material that was being used, as I had seen a shop the day before that was using sheets of metal with surface contamination and pitting (The apperance of this shop was also pretty poor). The shop that seemed to have a better grip on their quility control was showing that they use all stainless steel springs along with nickle based alloy for the valve. And most importantly the material for the diaphram I am told is rienforced Nomex which believe is the same as Tial

It was a fun way to spend the weekend in China and made some great contacts. Unbleviable this is how much they can make this for.

I did get to sit with their R&D team as they were taking apart a brand new Apex I turbo timer that they have alredy compied the PCB and are just waiting on the finished plastics. This complete re-engineering of product can take less than week

I will probably sell the second wastegate and BOV since I have 2 pairs, if anyone is iterested just send me an email, we can road test them together and provide viable feedback

[Falk930]

re-engeneering is the wrong term
the major problem is, when the copys continue or
even rise, there will be no real engeneering
work in future.
One of my parts, designed from me, is copyed in china.
Market price here is meanwhile 30% from my price.
They bring it over in 1000s quantity.
For sure our sells for this product go down,
as their qualtity is around 75% comparing to ours.

We are getting calls and emails every day asking
for street aproval papers, this is needed in Germany
for most car parts.
The Chin copys have no papers, people try to use ours
we paid a lot for to get them.

Am I interested to spend developing time and
money to get the next part copyed over there?
Are they able to develop a functional part with
appearance instead of stupidly copying it?

At the end, there will be less interesting
and new good products on the market.

For what?
Because some "clever" people need to
copy good products, produce 1000s
and throw them on market to earn few bucks.
And dont forget the ecological consequences
of this acting.
You might have seen some of them already
during your trip.

Nothing against competition, but 1:1 copys
from China and probably Africa in the future
is a competition we cant beat.

*sorry for this hard position, but this
Chin copy thing is something I cant
stay calm.

Falk

[jbrinkley]

the reason this happens is that a 46 tial is 5 bills.

and THAT rubs everyone the wrong way

but I agree with you

[RarlyL8]

Sent you an e-mial.
I would like to try those units out and compare to TiAL.
I've seen a couple of websites selling them and a comparison or two from folks who have purchased but would like to see first hand.

This wave of cheap Chinese stuff flooding the US market is the same as the "Jap Crap" that hit the US in the 70's. The Japanese were very accomplished at copying designs and using cheap lablor to kill US pricing. Quality sucked but people still bought it all.

Right now it is cheaper to buy stailess steel from China and import it to the US than to buy it in the US. Think about that. We are killing areselves economically.

Falk - I just took a 25% hit on the oil lines imported from Germany that I use on my SSI setups. This was due to the cadmium plating process being banned in Gemany. What do you think is going to happen to these lines now that I have to charge $200? No one will buy them and I'll have to go to China for a source.
This is bad but I would not pay it myself. The US worker is making less money every day and prices of goods are going through the roof. I don't want to see 930 ownership relegated to the rich. There are a lot of middle class enthusiasts. This is a tough one.

[shanghai_todd]

I fully agree with what has happened in the US work force and I am a result of it, My company is the EMS whore of the industry and has out sourced 95% of our business to low cost regions but the fact remains that this is driven by the OEM's and competition. My choice 5 years ago was simple, get with the trend and move to China or take un-employment.

Now with the European RoHs (Restrictions on Hazardas Sunstances) we will also start to see more material like cadmium be removed from the market, thanks to Green but now alternatives will increase in value.

I will say that 2 out of the 3 manufactures were hack-shacks while the other seemed better in quality and offered manufacturing, but also innovation, modification, design and customization through whatever fedback and customer's specific requirements were given.

[rotorhead]

Originally Posted by RarlyL8

This wave of cheap Chinese stuff flooding the US market is the same as the "Jap Crap" that hit the US in the 70's..

Good point

[930gt-40r]

Unfortunatly the U.S labor force has a lot to learn- our expectations are too high. Everyone thinks they need flat screen TVs and Nintendos and huge SUVs. Manufacturers get hammered with these unions demands and are forced to go over seas. While unions have made many people's lives better, they are doing so at the cost of drowning the employer and forcing some under.
I don't genneraly approve of the Chinese mass production method; my father owns an audio manufacturer and has used the Chinese for a few parts. While the prices are good and the quality on the most part is alright- If there is a foul up, it is a huge problem because they only deal in giant bulk.
For these reasons I think that america will get some of its machine work back.