3 ms·

The US has almost no precision machinists. Those guys are in Germany, Swizterland and Japan. There are all sorts of things you can't build over here or in Chin

The US has almost no precision machinists. Those guys are in Germany, Swizterland and Japan. There are all sorts of things you can't build over here or in China because we don't have the people who can do it precisely enough.

mmmBacon 11y ago
I agree here. I recently worked on a project that required very tiny and optically precise injection molding and coating. Chinese and Taiwanese manufacturers couldn't get close to making what we needed. There was a US manufacturer that could make the part but was very difficult to work with and they could not do all the process steps we needed. In the end, we went with a German company because they could do the precision machining required to meet our tolerances as well as the other process steps. Additionally, I often need to find precision materials or really high performance components and many times these are from German companies. Take the humble LED as an example, perhaps the most industry leading company in GaN LEDs is in Germany. Japanese can often offer the precision needed too but their companies are a lot less accessible and it takes a lot of time to build a relationship with them if you don't have one already. What they are really great at is that once you've built that relationship, they are usually very aggressive at supporting your needs. In Germany, I think some of it has to do with the fact that they have these government supported institutes for industrial research like HHI (Heinrich Hertz Institute). This allows them to find markets for new and risky technology and then transfer those innovations to industry.
- meatysnapper 11y ago
  Yeah, the electronics slipped my mind. I was chatting with a sensor guy the other day, and he said by far and away the best stuff for a particular application he had was Bosch. Nothing from out east or the US could touch it.
msandford 11y ago
Really? I used to work with a world class guy in Houston. There are a lot of very talented people that work in the oilfield, but they're usually very busy.

mmmBacon 11y ago

I agree here. I recently worked on a project that required very tiny and optically precise injection molding and coating. Chinese and Taiwanese manufacturers couldn't get close to making what we needed. There was a US manufacturer that could make the part but was very difficult to work with and they could not do all the process steps we needed. In the end, we went with a German company because they could do the precision machining required to meet our tolerances as well as the other process steps. Additionally, I often need to find precision materials or really high performance components and many times these are from German companies. Take the humble LED as an example, perhaps the most industry leading company in GaN LEDs is in Germany. Japanese can often offer the precision needed too but their companies are a lot less accessible and it takes a lot of time to build a relationship with them if you don't have one already. What they are really great at is that once you've built that relationship, they are usually very aggressive at supporting your needs. In Germany, I think some of it has to do with the fact that they have these government supported institutes for industrial research like HHI (Heinrich Hertz Institute). This allows them to find markets for new and risky technology and then transfer those innovations to industry.

meatysnapper 11y ago
Yeah, the electronics slipped my mind. I was chatting with a sensor guy the other day, and he said by far and away the best stuff for a particular application he had was Bosch. Nothing from out east or the US could touch it.

msandford 11y ago

Really? I used to work with a world class guy in Houston. There are a lot of very talented people that work in the oilfield, but they're usually very busy.