So do they ship the metal bits to Germany or the shells to Asia, for final assembly?
The metal bits get shipped to Germany for the German made stuff like SQ2 for assembly there
"The original Force 2000s weren't at the perfect price point," Karl concedes. "When we established that series in the mid-'80s, all of the drums were made in Germany." For a while, the 3000, Custom, and Maple Custom lines kept it alive. But manufacturing costs in Germany continued to rise, and we took Force off the market because it was too expensive."
That experience taught Sonor that the only way to level the playing field within this market segment was to venture beyond their home turf.
At the end of 1997, they formed a partnership with JMT Musical Instrument Company, a manufacturer of many brands of musical instruments and accessories sold worldwide. Then they moved all the Force molds and tooling to China. Going offshore allowed them to resume manufacturing the series the following year-but at a much lower cost.
Karl sees Sonor's arrangement with JM (as he and the other Germans abbreviate the company's name) sign of modern economic realities. "If you look around to other industries-cars, financing, banks, pharmaceuticals—they're all merging to become bigger and more powerful worldwide," he observes. "That's what we have done. JM is part of the KHS Group, a big company — a strong company - with facilities around the world. We are prepared for the future now."
JM's metalworks factory is at a separate four-acre site approximately thirty minutes away from the main manufacturing complex. (For environmental reasons, the government restricts electroplating operations to certain districts.) The processes performed there include die-casting, processing (drilling, threading, etc.), preparation (buffing, vibration polishing), and plating.
Both facilities are clean, efficient, and completely modern. Karl tells me that the state-of-the-art shell presses in Tianjin form the shells more efficiently than the ones in Germany. And most of the diecasting is done on new vacuum die-casting machinery, the industry's technical standard. Muse explains that vacuum eliminates air pockets in the molds as the metal is injected, ensuring stronger, higher-quality parts. It also reduces the burrs and other distortions common to less advanced types of casting.
Many of the smaller metal parts are polished in high-tech vibration polishing machines, where water and thousands of different-sized ceramic "cones" find their way into the parts' holes and crevices.
Then JMT's electrolytic plating machines, also state-of-the-art, apply copper, nickel, and finally chrome plating to much of the Force series' hardware.
"Most of the manufacturing equipment is brand-new," says Karl. "Some of it is made right here at JM. Some of it comes from other countries. There are even some American-made computer-controlled machines that cost millions of dollars." Even for their lower-cost products, Sonor clearly spared no expense on manufacturing equipment.”
