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Machine going to china

stan martin

Aluminum
Joined
Dec 26, 2005
Location
calif
I work for a rather large computor company. At the main assy plant there are several divisions that make other products besides computors. I work in the R@D area. I do proto type machining very interesting. The Engineer tells me what is needed and I build it. We (two of us) have been working on this process for over a year. Now the company is selling this machine, and the process to a company in China. The real kick in ass is I am training the Chinese workers on the maint of the machine. I don't blame the Chinese, it is companies like mine that sell stuff to China. I don't really care what happens now, as I am retireing in a few monthes, but a lot of people will be loosing their jobs over this sale. I am not listing my company or the process, as it may not be public information. Stan
 
I am glad that you will be able to retire Stan. I have a mental picture of a fleet of ships with the name of UHAUL loading up for the trip to China.
 
Here is what I would do: I would teach them 90% right, but about 10% wrong, so that when they get back, they will screw up. I would try to think of something to do that will completely ruin the machine, but not something they will do until they get back to China with it.
 
You have to love it, train your replacement and be happy about it, its not the chinese fault, its your company's fault. Basically they are screwing you, and as my Dad taught me, never screw anybody over until they screw you first, then its open game.

I would make this transition and training as difficult as possible(selling to the chinese or the guy down the street, your getting screwed). What are they going to do, fire you from job that won't exhist in a few months. They are openly screwing you and your co-workers, so screw them back and hit them were it hurts, in the wallet.

The owner is thinking, I can put these guys in the poor house and buy a house in Maui, and then the guy wonders why people keep stealing the wheels off of his BMW.
 
Don't worry - once the Chinese have it they'll reverse engineer it and in a year your boss will be wondering why no one is buying his machines any more.

He's doing more than selling a single machine - he's giving away yet another chunk of American ingenuity and know-how, forever.
 
Write them a nice manual in proper english. It will be so different from the manuals they're used to writing in that strange language for the equipment they sell here that they won't have a clue what it says.
 
OK, here is my story about something similar.

About 12 years ago, the medical company I've worked for sold 2 machines to China. No installation, service representation nothing, just shipped it in a container. Never heard from them again until a 2 years later, when they've asked us to send 3 or 4 engineers to train people on service and operation of the machines.
Well, let's just say that the training was done on not the units we've sold them, but rather on 3 of the 500+ exact replicas they had made.
My coworkers told me there was a huge warehouse literally filled to the top with mostly functional machines, identical to the tee to the original except for the company name and logo. They just needed a few tidbits to get everything right.
Needless to say that the whole crew left without any training or disclosure, but we know that the Chinese eventually got them to work and sold them internally. As far as we know none ever made it to any of our market, but that's not the point.


Bottom line is: It doesn't matter if you train them or not, reverse engineering will be done, and sooner or later they will even function.
 
When I was in Italy in November, I visited a factory that dominates the world in a couple of oddball machines.
They told us a story about the chinese, who bought one of their older machines, a very complicated packaging machine.
About 3 months later, the chinese called them up and said- We took it apart (obviously to reverse engineer it) and we cant get it to go back together.
The Italians just laughed, and told them to buy another one.

The chinese have failed to produce a single machine in this industry, and the Italians still sell new machines to the Chinese- these are tea bag packing machines.
The same company had similar stories about some of their pharmaceutical packaging machines- the Chinese were simply unable to reverse engineer most of them- a few of the simplest, low end machines, but this one Italian firm still has 75% of the world market.

So while they may try, they do not always succeed.
 
All that tea in China, and they cannot build a teabag machine... :D I remember a story, an older friend once told me. Sometime around the time of WW2, he was serving in the Pacific. They were in a building, & he saw a bunch of new Brown & Sharpe Milling machines. He had worked at B&S, so they caught his interest. Upon looking closer, he said it was obvious that they were fakes, every one of them even had the same serial number. I guess cheating & copying is just a way of life for Pacific Rim countries.
 
Don't put all the blame on the company. An equal
or greater amount goes to our fiends (NO MISSPELLING) in Wahington for violating the
constitution they swore to uphold
 
An old toolmaker I worked with told me the story of a job shop he worked at that was contracted to build some sort of machine that they knew was going to China for replication.

He said the designers adjusted the fits somewhat and all the shaft collars were put together with torches and dry ice. :D
 
When I was in Italy in November, I visited a factory that dominates the world in a couple of oddball machines.
They told us a story about the chinese, who bought one of their older machines, a very complicated packaging machine.
About 3 months later, the chinese called them up and said- We took it apart (obviously to reverse engineer it) and we cant get it to go back together.
The Italians just laughed, and told them to buy another
Funny my summer job was at a company that did similar type of stuff. They made a one of a kind valve for the oil industry. The chinese tried copying it but there are a bunch of trade secrets in it that are far more then measurements and metal. They had one machine they took apart and called in a service tech to put back together well the service tech realized what was going on and they told them same line. One of my common jobs there was to drill a tiny pin hole in each bolt they used there they'd then thread a wire and put a seal on it to tell if it had been tampered with. I'd say about 3-4 guys in the whole company knew all the secrets. They each had worked there for about 40 years. Other interesting story came when the Chinese arranged a factory tour. They came armed with cameras etc... However after having their cameras confuscated many of the machines in the shop were covered in tarps.

Adam
 








 
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