WIX Archives
Recurring and non-recurring cost
Posted by bdk on Mon Dec 15, 2003 12:21:16 AM
In reply top Re: Hurricane wing pickups - cost posted by Yak11Fan on Sun Dec 14, 2003 11:41:12 AM
I have no idea what Hurricane wing pickups look like, but N/C programming is time consuming and expensive, especially if you cannot amortize the programming and set-up cost over many units. You also would probably need to machine one side, flip the part over, set it up again (in a special holding fixture- i.e. tooling cost), and then machine the other side.
Add to that the cost of handling the paperwork (traceability) to track the part from the raw material billet through machining, heat treat, and plating required to be performed at outside suppliers. Each of these companies needs to make, and deserves a profit. You can see how the costs add up quickly.
Nowadays the costs are even higher for things like plating and painting due to environmental concerns and controls.
In the US, you wouldn't have to follow such a rigorous documentation path for the Experimental Exhibition category, but for Limited or Standard Category you are supposed to. The system in the US does not have lots of checks and balances for civil aircraft so I have seen a lot of questionable shortcuts, but the requirements for commercial aircraft are quite rigorous (due to life limited parts being sold with falsified paperwork and the like).
I think that in the UK, the requirements even for warbirds are quite rigorous by comparison, the same as commercial aircraft standards in the US.
: The Hurricane wing attachments take an awful lot of work t
: o produce, not to mention the large lump of metal it takes
: to start with, plus heat treatment etc. It's not a matter
: of putting a billet into a machine pressing the button an
: d letting it go, I can find out exactly what it takes if n
: eed be, I was looking at some part machined pick ups the o
: ther day.