Manufacturing "The Cheap"

'...And yet every keychain or mouse pad you've ever taken home as swag has been produced with a high level of know-how...... Whatever its apparent simplicity, a significant amount of engineering, problem-solving, and cutting-edge technology went into the creation of even the flimsiest spork.... '

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Flippant exaggeration and hyperbole are not desirable qualities for engineering journalism.

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Some plastic products are NOT created with a high level of know how.

Cutting edge technology is certainly NOT used to produce every plastic product.

Creation may be different than production in terms of technology used.

I can attest to the difficulty of molding prototype and precision parts, and run-of-the-mill production parts, too.

Thermoplastic materials ARE difficult to master. You can't put pellets in a hopper and turn the machine on.

I'm not implying that some level of difficulty does not exist for the process.

I am saying that not everything produced was done so with a 'high level of know how', and with 'cutting edge technology'.

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Sometimes less than premium grade products are produced exactly because a lack of extensive know how.

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As far as the 'cutting edge' thing, it isn't reasonable (when discussing a mature industry) to say that all production is done with cutting edge tech...it ceases to be cutting edge if everyone in a large industry employs it.

Agreed.

You can't put pellets in a hopper and turn the machine on.

Sure you can. That's the whole point of a typical plastic molding operation. BUT that's because the work was already put in upstream, from the material spec'ing and tool design down to the tech setting up the machine properly. And yes you always run into some problems that require competent people with brains and- oh oh, not that word- common sense, but they are the reason that you can operate within expected parameters 90%+ of the time.

_{And don't forget to keep that danged Murphy guy outa here too.....}