Imitation Knurling
Imitation Knurling
(OP)
Can anybody help please.
I'm sure that many people will have admired the beautiful knurled figer grip rings on SLR cameras and zoom lenses. Closer inspection reveals that most are no longer produced by knurling and anodising, but are moulded in a relatively soft plastic/rubber in the form of a wide band that fits into a plain recess on the outside diameter of the lens housing.
Does anyone know where these can be sourced or what they are called? I have tried countless searches without success, maybe I just need the correct keyword. I have also asked our Japanese agent to try camera manufacturers there, but he has had no luck either.
Thanks in anticipation.
Trevor Clarke. (R & D) Scientific Instruments.






RE: Imitation Knurling
Be sure to include a truncated cone or whatever in the title block to show exactly what projection you use.
Get out a trade magazine or ten, look for molded rubber producers, and fax the drawing around the world. I'd start with Taiwan.
If you're looking for a clone of a part that's already in production, one bidder will come in a lot lower than anyone else, with essentially zero tooling charge. That's the guy who's making them already.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Imitation Knurling
Tool amortisation and production set up can be a lot more than incremental part cost.
Regards
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RE: Imitation Knurling
Thank you Mike and Pat for your helpful comments. I would like to avoid the route that Mike suggests because of the relatively high tooling and set up costs that Pat pointed out; alhough the various quotations may well smoke out an existing manufacturer. Although, in the end this approach may be the only way, as I have looked at virtually every website in Taiwan/China that deals with this type of moulding and directly asking the consumer goods guys that use them has been fruitless so far.
We make highly specialised equipment for cancer research, so our production volumes will always be low and whilst our customers are prestigious, they are always pleading poverty, so we have to keep our manufacturing costs down wherever possible and can make small design changes to accomodate the sizes in someones existing range, hence the desire to find out who is already making these items or what they are called so that I can better target my searches. I am not inexperienced in web searcing, but these are proving to be elusive little devils, despite the limiting boolean criteria, many an eyebrow has been raised here at the things searching for soft rubber mouldings has trawled up!
Trevor Clarke. (R & D) Scientific Instruments.Somerset. UK
RE: Imitation Knurling
The other choice is getting your own part injection molded in a thermoplastic elastomer in aluminum tooling, which will probably cost less than you've spent so far on web searches.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Imitation Knurling
As Mike says, moulders are not free to sell you parts made on someone else's mould.
Regards
eng-tips, by professional engineers for professional engineers
Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.
RE: Imitation Knurling
Thanks for the comments guys.
We CAN buy them as spare parts, not directly from the so-and-so manufactures, but from their repair departments. However, these all want the camera model/lens part number first and have no idea what size they are. I have spoken to a multi manufacturer, specialist repair shop, who had used these items and was fairly sure that they were not made by the companies themselves but by a third party. He recalled that they came in common packaging and not that of the camera maker. Therefore, we should go directly to them, as they would probably be able to offer a range of sizez and patterns, but he didn't keep any in stock and didn't know who "they" were. He just ordered them as genuine spares with the listed part number from the original manufacturer. He tried but couldn't get a name from any of the so-and-so's, so he's getting me a couple of types and I hope that the packaging will reveal something.
If not, as Mike suggests, our own custom mould could work out cheaper. We have a couple of parts made for us already, but when I sent our moulder the drawings for these, he said that he'd seen something like them in a trade magazine a while ago and it would be cheaper to try and track them down, especially as we need a number of different sizes, arghh!
It can stay on the back burner for a while to see what the packaging for the spares says, but it does seem like a bit of a challenge now!
Trevor Clarke. (R & D) Scientific Instruments.Somerset. UK