AQUAFIBRE MOULDS

[CambridgeCabby]

All this mention of moulds etc , I was wondering why (expense I guess) with the advent of the 3D printer that the possibility of printing a boat this way hasn’t happened , yes it would have to be a bloody big printer but no storage costs for hundreds of moulds just the need for one huge printer .

 

[oldgregg]

F1 teams use 3D printers for windtunnel parts but not for the full-size pieces so I would guess they don't suit composites so well?

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[LondonRascal]

This is exactly what is being done, right now over in Taiwan - who are fast becoming one of the worlds largest manufactures  boats (ranked 5th as of 2017)  and they have massive backing from the Government by creating the South Star Yacht Industry Park.

How Europe and America will fair in the long term I know not, but this is before China has woken up to boat building, once they join in in a big way goodness knows what the future will be - I recon Princess will make a boat and China will just copy it, halve the cost and do rather nicely like Huawei have with phones and market share.

Here is one of the giant CNC gantry mounted milling system's:

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, LondonRascal said:

This is exactly what is being done, right now over in Taiwan - who are fast becoming one of the worlds largest manufactures  boats (ranked 5th as of 2017)  and they have massive backing from the Government by creating the South Star Yacht Industry Park.

How Europe and America will fair in the long term I know not, but this is before China has woken up to boat building, once they join in in a big way goodness knows what the future will be - I recon Princess will make a boat and China will just copy it, halve the cost and do rather nicely like Huawei have with phones and market share.

Here is one of the giant CNC gantry mounted milling system's:

China wake up to boatbuilding ? I think you'll find they already have a marina in Yorkshire that I used to moor at and work for were agents for Chinese narrow boats back in 2006 , if you like bamboo then you'll love them though maybe not trying to sell one .

What we should be doing is promoting and supporting our own boatbuilding industry especially in the current climate.

[LondonRascal]

When I say about China they are not doing much - yet. I can well see a time where they begin with their domestic market (some very wealthy Chinese out there) and then try and undercut the European market, but point to their experience back in their domestic market. Hire some European designers and fit them out to our sort of tastes and away they go.

Another route in would be to simple buy an established brand then move production over to China. The problem we have is not many people these days seem to care about supporting a home grown industry - they see a price and support the cheapest. If that is from overseas, so be it.

Yes quality matters and some will plain blank refuse to have imported when you can buy British and support our workers, but over and over we have lost out in many areas and it is hard to claw back after the horse has bolted. We can;t undercut on price, so we must do better with quality and innovative design if we fail at that, we are stuffed.

 

[NeilB]

There's a company called Mouldcam who have been making moulds for a few years now using foam plugs from a huge CNC machine.  Some of the UK builders use them.

[JohnK]

The problem we have is not many people these days seem to care about supporting a home grown industry - they see a price and support the cheapest.

 

Interesting post from someone who has criticised a British made security product on another thread in the last couple of hours

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

[LondonRascal]

2 minutes ago, JohnK said:

Interesting post from someone who has criticised a British made security product on another thread in the last couple of hours

As you will no doubt be aware from previous discussions here, I do like to support our friends in China economically. However, I have not decided whether to trust one of their warm air heaters just yet lol.

[oldgregg]

Unless I'm mistaken, these prototyping tools mentioned above are only being used for building plugs?

So a proper mould tool and traditional lay-up of an actual set of mouldings is still required - And storage for the mould tools....

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[JohnK]

As you will no doubt be aware from previous discussions here, I do like to support our friends in China economically.

I wasn’t aware of that. Sorry. I don’t read everything on here.
If we’re talking food I’m with you 100%

[Guest]

2 hours ago, JohnK said:

 

I wasn’t aware of that. Sorry. I don’t read everything on here.
If we’re talking food I’m with you 100%

 

Which we arnt were talking boats or boat moulds to be exact , with the British boatbuilding industry ists simple , " use it or lose it " .

[KaptinKev]

2 hours ago, Ricardo said:

Which we arnt were talking boats or boat moulds to be exact , with the British boatbuilding industry ists simple , " use it or lose it " .

Like with most companies, if you can build cheaper and make more money elsewhere, loyalty to your country doesn't come into it!

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, KaptinKev said:

Like with most companies, if you can build cheaper and make more money elsewhere, loyalty to your country doesn't come into it!

Sadly your right but that said the customer  still has a choice .

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

28 minutes ago, Ricardo said:

Sadly your right but that said the customer  still has a choice .

To be honest Ricardo, i would sometimes disagree with that. If a customer wants to buy British, great, but what if a famous and popular British manufacturer of whatever, decides to move their entire manufacturing plant of a popular British built product, over to the far east somewhere, because it`s more profitable?. First, many British people have lost jobs, and the customer does`nt have a choice, unless they buy a rival, and possibly inferior product. That`s not a choice.

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, SPEEDTRIPLE said:

To be honest Ricardo, i would sometimes disagree with that. If a customer wants to buy British, great, but what if a famous and popular British manufacturer of whatever, decides to move their entire manufacturing plant of a popular British built product, over to the far east somewhere, because it`s more profitable?. First, many British people have lost jobs, and the customer does`nt have a choice, unless they buy a rival, and possibly inferior product. That`s not a choice.

Yea see your point n to be honest it does happen , that then makes the product to me one I wouldn't buy as they betrayed the country and its workforce for profit ( greed) .

Yrs back when I commissioned my  narrow boat the company I chose had just started importing bo rojeats from Poland , no sure the polish can build boats but I wanted a British built boat , after a bit of wangling I even dictated which steel shell they were going to fit out and to what layout , its extremely difficult to do that if , one you don't talk the language and two you can't over see a project when its thousands of miles away .

[C.Ricko]

http://www.monstercam.co.uk

 

[JohnK]

that then makes the product to me one I wouldn't buy as they betrayed the country and its workforce for profit ( greed) .

You could say the country betrayed the company by buying on price alone.
Most companies don’t move manufacturing overseas on a whim or to “betray the country”, they do it because most people don’t care that stuff is British made, they care that it’s cheap.
We reap what we sow.

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, JohnK said:

 

You could say the country betrayed the company by buying on price alone.
Most companies don’t move manufacturing overseas on a whim or to “betray the country”, they do it because most people don’t care that stuff is British made, they care that it’s cheap.
We reap what we sow.

 

Remember the motto " buy it cheap and buy it twice " there is a member on here that bought some cheap led lights a fair while back and discovered to his horror that they were over heating and burning the inside of his boat and that's just one example , the Chinese narrow boats I referred to were so bad that eventually brokers refused to consider them for sale I personally replaced the windows in 8 of them and the entire floor in 2 others and when you consider that everything has to come out to remove the floor then I'm sure you can realise how bigger job that is n also that sterling board is not a suitable substance especially at 16 mm thick .

Feel free to buy cheep when you have bought 2 then maybe time for a rethink I guess .

Your entirely right though you do reap what you sow hence I by British if its entirely posable and I certainly do t adopt the attitude some have that British means built in a shed we are world leaders in many many product's .

[JohnK]

Remember the motto " buy it cheap and buy it twice " there is a member on here that bought some cheap led lights a fair while back and discovered to his horror that they were over heating and burning the inside of his boat and that's just one example , the Chinese narrow boats I referred to were so bad that eventually brokers refused to consider them for sale I personally replaced the windows in 8 of them and the entire floor in 2 others and when you consider that everything has to come out to remove the floor then I'm sure you can realise how bigger job that is n also that sterling board is not a suitable substance especially at 16 mm thick .
Feel free to buy cheep when you have bought 2 then maybe time for a rethink I guess .
Your entirely right though you do reap what you sow hence I by British if its entirely posable and I certainly do t adopt the attitude some have that British means built in a shed we are world leaders in many many product's .

I’d bet a lot of money there is nobody (me included) here that owns no foreign produced goods when British produced equivalents were available.
Chinese does not automatically mean poor quality.

[ranworthbreeze]

44 minutes ago, JohnK said:

 

I’d bet a lot of money there is nobody (me included) here that owns no foreign produced goods when British produced equivalents were available.
Chinese does not automatically mean poor quality.

 

Hi JohnK ,

I agree that Chinese does not mean poor quality, would I buy something that they have produced, yes I have the prices were exceptional but the delivery costs were staggering.

Like many of the people above I avoid buying products from British companies that have moved their production abroad.

That of course is just my personal standpoint.

Regards

Alan

[JohnK]

Hi JohnK ,
I agree that Chinese does not mean poor quality, would I buy something that they have produced, yes I have the prices were exceptional but the delivery costs were staggering.
Like many of the people above I avoid buying products from British companies that have moved their production abroad.
That of course is just my personal standpoint.
Regards
Alan

I work in the cement industry and a few years ago a Chinese company employed a European company to build a cement plant for them in China.
A few years later the Chinese company was selling cement plants to European cement manufacturers. Guess what the kit looked like
Some of the early plants were pretty bad but they improved very quickly. At roughly $300m for a plant there’s pretty significant savings to be had even if maintenance does cost a lot more.
They might not be very good at boat hulls now (I don’t know, I’m assuming posts above are true) but you can be damn sure if they see a significant market they soon will be.

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, JohnK said:

 

I work in the cement industry and a few years ago a Chinese company employed a European company to build a cement plant for them in China.
A few years later the Chinese company was selling cement plants to European cement manufacturers. Guess what the kit looked like
Some of the early plants were pretty bad but they improved very quickly. At roughly $300m for a plant there’s pretty significant savings to be had even if maintenance does cost a lot more.
They might not be very good at boat hulls now (I don’t know, I’m assuming posts above are true) but you can be damn sure if they see a significant market they soon will be.

 

Remember trade shows in the '70's, the Japanese were photographing "everything" in meticulous detail, now look at the quality of their products. 

[unclemike]

1 hour ago, JohnK said:

Chinese does not automatically mean poor quality.

tell that to nissan navara owners, nissan refuse to recall but buy back at market value.

all navaras between 2005 and 2010 are prone to chassis failure.

CHINESE STEEL

one of my customers in vehicle salvage has approching 2000

amarica has 45000

800 in n ireland waiting to come to this country,many breakers are full aswell

[JohnK]

Ever read about the Ford Pinto recall (or lack of it)?

[Guest]

In the motor industry the Chinese have decided to "short cut" the copy or reverse engineering route to making a better product. They bought Volvo and Lotus to immediately own and have access to cutting edge design technology, manufacturing processes and quality control processes.