Prototype job I'm quoting

[Charley Davidson]

I went out and about today letting businesses that I thought might need my services know I was around. One guy gave me this part that he replaces about 100 per year of on various late model foreign cars. He says they only last about 6 months then start leaking. He thinks he can sell several thousand a year as they fit a 10 year span then there are about 10 different models of cars that use them (so 10 model #'s)

Now I need to talk to a casting/mold co. about casting them for me & then figuring out how much machining will be involved.

 

[Tony Wells]

Couple of ways to approach it. Die casting, in which you will need to supply a full set of manufacturing drawings to a foundry. Machine from billet, probably most expensive unless quantities truly are great. Lastly, maybe most practical for small quantities, and if allowable, fabrication. There's a lot you need to know about the function of the part before you can really quote it. It's probably cast aluminum, but might be something else. You need some idea of the mating part and it's tolerances for all the attachment points. It looks like flow patterns may be part of the original design.

I think you've got a handful there, to be duplicating an OEM piece. I believe I'd fab up some from some machined pieces, and do a LOT of tests on the vehicles where the part is used before I got too deep into it. There's usually more than meets the eye to a part like that.

 

[DMS]

Something that occurred to me when I read your post. Try to get hold of a "failed" unit and figure out why it failed (looks like there are some seals there, I'm imagining that is where things go bad. If you know why it's failing, you may able to take a failed unit and re-manufacture, rather than starting from rough castings.

 

[8ntsane]

Charley

That part looks like it would be a PITA for you. Most of the profits , if any would be put into the hands of a casting outfit. Then again, its a cast piece now, and the replacement may not be worth that much, you better check into that first. You dont need to redesign the wheel.

I have people bring me odd things like that all the time. The problem usually is, the replacement isnt much money, and the customer doesnt want to pay you to whittle a replacement. The only guys that usually will pay for your time on custom parts, is racers. In there case, if it mean s a failure while in competition, then it must be improved on and made reliable.