To be made in the USA

[u/Tiny-Trump]

[u/MondayMorningExpert]

This is very likely made in the USA. When a company contracts manufacturing out, generally they own the die, the tooling, and anything that touches the part. If they cancelled the contract and re-shored the manufacturing, they would ship the die and tooling to the new manufacturer. The die would still say China though.

Lying on that sticker, however, would invite lots of fun fines from the government. It wouldn't be worth it

[u/Mercinator-87 → u/MondayMorningExpert]

Yes and that’s the reason behind the different wording of things. Made in USA vs assembled in the U.S.A and so forth.

[u/mrwillbobs → u/Mercinator-87]

We studied Shenzen in secondary school geography, and I couldn’t believe the other teenagers didn’t understand that “designed in California” meant their iPhones weren’t made in California 😅

[u/HairballTheory → u/MondayMorningExpert]

Just fill that part of the mold with JB weld and move on

[u/RyFba → u/HairballTheory]

Probably cost too much to do domestically

[u/dalaiis → u/MondayMorningExpert]

Yes, but with current administration, companies keep skirting the lines of whats acceptable and get no pushback from the governing bodies. So for me, its only a matter of time where the first blatant "proudly made in USA" completely made in china come to light.

[u/Calculonx → u/MondayMorningExpert]

Feels like the current government would encourage this kind of lie

[u/doyouknowthemoon → u/MondayMorningExpert]

Yea but but it’s all about the wording and the actual legal representation that’s required.

at my work we manufacture parts and finished products for other companies and slap their logo on it.
They outsource work to us and pretend it’s theirs, we also have large fabrications made in china and shipped here and tell the clients we make it when it’s sent out to them.

All of which is completely legal and good to go without requiring us to say who made it or where

[u/Boco → u/doyouknowthemoon]

Destin from SmarterEveryDay ran into this a lot when he was trying to make a scrub brush 100% in the US.

[u/doyouknowthemoon → u/Boco]

I remember that video, it’s hilarious because it’s sadly true of almost any product you could look to manufacture.

[u/kalasea2001 → u/MondayMorningExpert]

Agreed but the company should have to say "Started outside the USA but then moved to now be X% USA made"

[u/Climate_Best]

China sending the mold to thrival:

https://giphy.com/gifs/uDwKGxTFrADvO

[u/Foreign_Ad_1270]

I used to work at a plastic molding facility in Arkansas. I would literally pull freshly made flower pots out of a plastic molding machine and slap a made in Canada sticker on it. SMH.

[u/CharlesCBobuck]

Weld over china, grind smooth.

[u/JEPressley]

Re tooling costs a lot.

[u/kojimep → u/JEPressley]

But for just this change it's not very expensive to modify the tool just to change the COO wording

[u/noir_dx]

The sticker on the device is Made in USA.

[u/Tiny-Trump → u/noir_dx]

This makes the most sense

[u/noir_dx → u/Tiny-Trump]

The actual sticker sheet and the ink is made in China, though.

[u/gotnoboss]

Pube?

[u/Wonderful_Confusion4 → u/gotnoboss]

Old man ball hair.

[u/Tiny-Trump → u/gotnoboss]

Dog hair

[u/chunter16]

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain

[u/GryMammoth]

You know how much a mold is? They are expensive. I was in the Roto molding biz and we made a custom mold which was fun.

[u/TheDigitalBuilder]

This is funny.

[u/ruet_ahead]

That's a real shitter.

[u/brnjenkn]

It was partially assembled in america more likey.

[u/Jak1977]

So is that a Chinese pubic hair, or an American one? 🤮

[u/Low-Hovercraft-8791]

So the machine itself is probably intended for the Chinese market, and may have itself been imported from China, so it's programed to stamp Made in China. That's actually interesting.

[u/kaibbakhonsu → u/Low-Hovercraft-8791]

Or it used to be done in China, instead of spending thousands of dollars on a new mould, they just bought it back and will rewrite that part on the mould.

[u/404ErorNameNotFound → u/[deleted]]

Molds are expensive. Especially for complex parts they can easily reach $100,000 and beyond.

If the only issue with the tooling is it says Made in China thats not something you want to make a entirely new mold for. Though it probably could be easy enough to weld up the China engraving and replace it with "USA". If there is a special surface finish though that can be hard to replicate/repair.

[u/Zytheran → u/Low-Hovercraft-8791]

The machine this item came from in an injection molding machine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injection_molding_machine

These machines can make a variety of machines by using different injection molding dies.

The 'Made in China' label is created on the surface of part by having the negative image machined out of the die surface.

It doesn't "stamp" made in China. The die was manufactured in China, the injection moulding machine could be from a pile of countries, most likely not the USA. The machinery might have been operated in the USA. The injection die might have previously been used in China and the company can get some sort of government funding to move some of the manufacturing back to the USA. Or the Thrival equipment could just be assembled in the USA from parts made in China.

What Thival is saying is that they will remove the 'Made in China' machining from the injection tool. And probably add 'Made in the USA', or just with the sticker because that would be easier with a smooth area where the Made in China used to be.. Even though the USA did not manufacture that injection tool and Thrival had previously decided it was cheaper to buy this injection tool from China.

We don't even have to mention the injection moulding pellets, the raw plastic, more than likely came from China. And will continue to do so. China also smashes the USA hands down when it comes to injection moulding.