So why can't we build anything here in anymore with small comapanies like Polygone?
ABB, Rockwell, Schneider Hamond just to name a few are all giant companies, multinationals.
Doug
Marketing and finance, they have tendrils that reach into every last nook and cranny...
You pick the example of pumps, we'll use that...
You want to build a proper 1" farm / home / domestic water pump?
Let's take the old lister style as a starting point.
1/ It's crap because you will get precisely zero patents on it.
2/ It's crap because you will only sell one per customer every 20 years.
3/ It's crap because (see #2) it costs ten times as much to make as design X
4/ It's crap because the design doesn't lend itself to farming out manufacturing to just in time lowest unit cost sources.
5/ It's crap because it will be ten times the price of the competition.
6/ It's crap because nobody will lend you money to run the manufacturing operation.
7/ It's crap because of #6, and competing with large productions runs of cheap stuff is the only way to survive in business now, critical mass for a small business is no longer a dozen employees or so, not unless they are all in sales.
8/ It's crap because the potential buying public will never see it, your Sears etc won't stock it because it is so expensive there will be no margin for them, compared to the cheap pumps they carry.
9/ It's crap because it is quality, so it will reflect badly on every other line the pump sales outlet carries.
I could go on, but you get the picture.....
Where you are REALLY screwed is if you WANT to buy a quality pump.....
You'll have sites like this, where 99.9% of users simply would or could not pay for a genuine new Lister CS if they were still in production.....
You'll have the odd person who knows of a small outfit that still makes new pumps, maybe 50 a week, very expensive and a waiting list for pumps, but unless you are me or know me you'll never know such an outfit exists and assume they have all folded.
You'll end up going to Sears.....
Marketing and Finance, between the two of them they are vastly bigger than any small, medium or normal sized company, so they dictate the commerical enviornment that all such companies find themselves in....
People talk about EPA and crap like that, it doesn't affect the Marketers or Bankers one iota, if anything, it gives them extra channels to exert their influence, so it and its ilk ain't going away any time soon...
I could build up a new, as in all brand new, Lister CS clone, not indian style clone, pukka clone, everything as a minimum meets or exceeds lister specs, with AC genhead, variable DC dynamo from welding on down, 6 cfm 120 psi air compressor and reservoir, and dowty type (gear) hydraulic pump and ancilliaries to make a power pack, all in a steel cage / cradle just lift it with a hook or forklift, for about 12k UK pounds, I looked at this about 2.5 to 3 years ago, and walked away from it, thanks to marketing and finance, I would have been extremely lucky to sell even one, never mind one in a year...