cboggs wrote:ClassKing wrote:Althought we're doomed by losing busniess to them, I could give a rats ass about China. Now, to stay on topic -
yea, don't want to take this off topic, .. and perhaps this should be moved,
But, .. talking to a CnC shop that makes a CnC unit for heads, .. they told
me an interest from another country wanted to buy the machine but
only if it came with port programes. He told me when they found out it
didn't, they wanted to buy heads they could copy !!!!!!
Has anyone investigated ways to protect our work??
I've spent many years in the photographic industry, copyright theft
was always a problem, .. I wonder if copyright or patent laws
could help us.
The down side to all this CnC & software development is it's
made it too easy for someone to steal all our hard work and
development and sell it off cheap!
Curtis
Boy, China is a sore subject.
I guess we -well corporate America- has brought much of it on "our"selves. More and more goods are being sent over there everyday for manufacture.
Some facts: They bought the most machine tools last year, CAD/CAM sales are booming in China, 90% of the jobs lost here in the US last year were from manufacturing. Most of that 90% were structural losses, ie jobs that will not get call backs. Many American companies would rather invest their dollars in their asian manufacturing centers than here. International Outsourcing is really killing those of us who manufacture goods and there just isn't anything good to say about it.
I've heard all the paradigm shift theories and none of them hold any water. You know the shifts I'm talking about -agricultural to manufacturing and manufacturing to service-. Take a look at those service jobs that were suppose to pick up the slack. Some of them are over seas now too, while others just don't exist anymore due to failed markets.
Then take a look at our youth today. Do you realize how difficult it is to find a top notch machinist, tool & die maker, mold maker or pattern builder who's under the age of 50? An engineer I work with -good friend of mine- asked me the other day why we couldn't pick up some young guys and teach them. I told him I guess that would be a possibility but most of the kids today want the fast track to big pay. If I really cared about the kid's future, I'd bring him in and teach him CAD. Then give him a few years and he'll be making more than most of the 15 year machinist in this area. The young guys -those that might have a mind for manufacturing- know that the pay is not there anymore. There is just no incentive. They'd rather go build a website or learn 3d animation than work in a machine shop.
Until things change -policy wise- I don't see it getting any better for US manufacturing. Tax breaks are helpful but they won't fix the problem. Going to have to fix the imported goods and outsourcing through policy. They have to level the playing ground.
Curtis, that is a good question. If you have a trade secret, then you might be able to protect your ideas to some extent but it's tough with something like a CNC cylinder head. Prints, estimated time of development and other information like that may help you if you ever ran into a situation but how do you check? Would you know you're own port -digitized and copied- from the original. Detection would be very difficult. I wish I could offer more advice.
Chuck