-=> Quoting Roy J. Tellason to Leonard Erickson <=-

 RJT> following up a message from Roy J. Tellason to Leonard Erickson:
 
 RJT> Leonard Erickson wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:
 
 TW>  Yuo are not looking them. first the Very Limited Production no
 TW> matter whjat you think Raises the Price of an Item Significantly.
 TW> FAR more than one would think actualy. Check some time in the
 TW> Industrial Market and see what the difference is in pricing between
 TW> lots of 100 and 100,000
 
 RJT> I've noticed that sort of thing before,  but have never been too sure
 RJT> about how much that was a factor of distribution and how much it was a
 RJT> matter of manufacture.  When it comes to distribution,  it costs a
 RJT> certain amount to process an order,  no matter what,  so the more of
 RJT> whatever you order the less per item it costs.  Packaging enters into
 RJT> it too,  with the prices per small quantity being understandably more
 RJT> expensive than for large quantities,  or "bulk".  But cost to
 RJT> manufacture?  I'm not so sure. 
 
 LE> You have to set up "tooling". Circuit board layouts, injection
 LE> molds for plastic cases and parts (at around $10k each!!), etc. The
 LE> cost of those has to be spread over the expected production run.
 
 RJT> That's why I keep seeing cheaper and cheaper construction in stuff
 RJT> that's commercial,  and it seems to get further and further from
 RJT> anything I'd ever build or assemble myself...
 
 LE> For a run of of 100, that injection molded case is going to add
 LE> $100 *per unit* to the cost. For a run of 10,000 it adds *1*
 LE> dollar/unit. (actually, closer to 2, since there's a limit to home
 LE> many times you can use the mold).
 
 RJT> Ain't it nifty that computer stuff has gotten as cheap as it has? 
 RJT> :-) 

 RJT> Been thinking about this stuff again,  and how technology has pushed
 RJT> all sorts of things forward,  especially in recent years... 
 RJT> Do you see this as changing,  any?  It would seem to me that
 RJT> technology ought to be able to push this "barrier" back
some,  at the
 RJT> very least. 

Well, you either have to "machine" parts, use fairly standard
"folded"
metal cases, or use "molded" parts. And injection molding is currently
the only practical way to mold plastic plarts for many purposes. 

Alas, the molds required are fairly high precision blocks of solid
steel. That's required by the pressures and temps involved. Which makes
them expensive.

There's no method that's cheap for low volume use. 

The only things that even look possible are some techniques that
involve creating 3d shapes out opf liquid that are used for some 3d
modeling work (modeling in the scientif/engineering sense, not the
hobby sense). But so far they are very fragile.

And, of course if they ever get molecular assemblers/fabricators to
work, all bets are off. No, this isn't "nano-technology". At least not
in the normal sense. These would be "normal" sized devices that build
objects one atom or molecule at a time. 

"Real" nanotechnology involves devices the size of large molecules. 


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