Or any other fine instrument from the golden age of machinery (1860-1950).

There are minute parts & screws-all painstakingly adjusted for poise & time keeping to a degree most would find impossible today.
The screws holding in a jewel are probably smaller than a flea's ass.

Just takes time & a lot of hands on training. And a commitment to employ & train American workers.

[link:http://www.usmicroscrew.com/|

off them Making screws is not rocket science. My biggest fear in drafting school was drawing screw thread the rest of my life.

www.thomasnet.com/suppliers/

Product / Service: screws
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That thomasnet site is cool. Did you see the daily bite stuff? Those articles were good. I think it proves your point about getting custom screws shouldn't be a problem. The original article should have done a better job fact checking. Apple's story doesn't seem plausible.


In your opinion is there a coming shortage of tool and die makers like the article I linked says?

Thats a function of two things: factories being sent overseas, and the advent of CadCam machinery. So we're good at at extremely limited production like prototyping and specialty fasteners.

It also makes us susceptible to counterfeit engineered fasteners for automotive, military and aerospace markets. That's why there are still good sources of high end, high performance fasteners like Apple's little loose screw right here in the US.

We don't make as many commodity screws as we used to. We still make specialty screws - lots of them. Making fasteners doesn't use humans as much as it uses machinery and automation.

I remember those from the library.

I remember a lot of things from the library.

that the manufacturers can put their literature into it. Used to get the Sweets Catalogue (architecture), too. Just as big and just as information rich.

I designed fire rated windows, performance windows and wall systems, ballistic, blast resistant window and wall systems.

The metal part of it would be made on a cold header. This would rquire investing in the dies to make it. Once you have the dies the machine can produce thousands per hour. Ditto for the molding it into the plastic. Once you have the dies made they can be mass produced for a pittance. Dies are very expensive so what they are saying is that they didn't plan on a large volume of production that would provide a good rate of return on their initial investment and have decided to go with non propitary parts as much as possible. This could lead to supply chain problems if the only company or companies that make the part don't have the capacity or willingness to supply the part.
Also, there is quite a bit of lead time in making propitary parts. Design the part, design the dies or molds, have them made and then either tool up in house or contract it out. Most contract manufaturers have a booked up schedule and you will have to wait a while.

screws costs only the materials. If I have a kabillion run, the manufacturer will run several kabillion. The small screw Apple wants might only need a barrel to hold several hundred thousand. At about $.03/pc even with the injection molded head. Injection molding is not expensive, either.

Thread has been standardized for a century. Tooling exists for the screw itself. The injection molding not going to break Apple. If there isn't stock molding or someone else's tooling for the plastic head that would wouldn't be available, I'll eat my hat. The only major feature in a fasteners that's changed much over the last half century is the drive feature.

"The only major feature in a fasteners that's changed much over the last half century is the drive feature."

Apple wants fasteners that only Apple has the tools to remove and install. They want no one other than authorized entities to be able to do anything to their devices. If they can't have a security type head that own the rights to all the tooling, they will go somewhere else, no matter the cost.

The parts and workers are not special. It is always the wages the company has to pay, which means where they decide to build the product. Apple is just another ripoff company which worships the almighty dollar. Apple has it slave labor camps in China, which are illegal in any other country. I do not think big companies respect their workers because they think workers are EXPENDABLE.....