One has to ask themselves why is MIM showing up in guns and other products where forged or cast parts were used in the past? It is not the MIM itself that is the issue it is the mentality that drives a company to use MIM. It is not about improving the product. It is not about making it better. It it about making it cheaper to produce with a piece of material that is "good enough" to get the job done. With MIM you can take what used to be a complicated hand assembled/fitted part which might have had multiple pieces and components and simplify it into a single molded part that is good enough to get the job done but that creates a slippery slope.
More and more gun manufacturers are realizing that the avg gun simply do not get shot that often. IMHO the avg pistol sold in this country gets fired less than 1000 time in its lifetime.
I know people are going to jump all over this and say I put 1000 rounds down range just last week..... yada yada yada but I will remind people that we are the major minority when it comes to gun ownership.
Most people buy a gun shoot it when new throw it in a drawer next to the bed and call it a day. They might take it out a few times a year shoot a few rounds and then back in the draw it goes.
Knowing this manufactures have adopted a "pinto principle" mind set. Build it good enough for the vast majority of buyers those who exceed the avg usage and experience breakage fix those under warranty. These will be few and far between this all equals increases to the bottom line. Even if you know there is a potential failure down the road it is easier to keep producing the product as is and deal with the warranty claims if and when they come up. Guns manufacturers are no different than auto makers or any other manufacturer for that matter who have been doing this forever.
The manufacturer uses MIM because they reduce production cost over the long run which may or may not be passed on to the consumer. MIM done will get the job done but the issue is that every company is trying to squeeze as many pennies out of every unit the sell. This causes them to cut costs which means that more and more MIM is used and overtime cheapened to the brink of failure or in some cases developed from jump to barely get the job done ="pinto principle".
Remember MIM was not introduced to make the pistol better it was introduced to make it cheaper to manufacture. It is a perfect example of what I call the "pinto principle".... Add to that more and more manufacturers are outsourcing their MIM parts to the lowest bidder. So you have compounding factor in the race to the bottom.
Again it is not that MIM cannot produce a good part. It is not that MIM can't be used in guns and aerospace etc... it is that the mentality that is driving the use of MIM is a race to the bottom in terms of cost which in the end can only bring down quality. The same can happen to forged and cast parts as well but MIM seems to take the brunt of the criticism in the gun world.
If I have the choice between MIM and forged steel I will pay a little more and go with the forged part but I understand not everyone else would agree. I personally wish it was not used but I understand why it is. The avg consumer keeps demanding more for less and MIM is one of the ways the gun makers achieve this. So in a sense we have done it to ourselves. End of soap box rant!!!
More and more gun manufacturers are realizing that the avg gun simply do not get shot that often. IMHO the avg pistol sold in this country gets fired less than 1000 time in its lifetime.
I know people are going to jump all over this and say I put 1000 rounds down range just last week..... yada yada yada but I will remind people that we are the major minority when it comes to gun ownership. Most people buy a gun shoot it when new throw it in a drawer next to the bed and call it a day. They might take it out a few times a year shoot a few rounds and then back in the draw it goes.
Knowing this manufactures have adopted a "pinto principle" mind set. Build it good enough for the vast majority of buyers those who exceed the avg usage and experience breakage fix those under warranty. These will be few and far between this all equals increases to the bottom line. Even if you know there is a potential failure down the road it is easier to keep producing the product as is and deal with the warranty claims if and when they come up. Guns manufacturers are no different than auto makers or any other manufacturer for that matter who have been doing this forever.
The manufacturer uses MIM because they reduce production cost over the long run which may or may not be passed on to the consumer. MIM done will get the job done but the issue is that every company is trying to squeeze as many pennies out of every unit the sell. This causes them to cut costs which means that more and more MIM is used and overtime cheapened to the brink of failure or in some cases developed from jump to barely get the job done ="pinto principle".
Remember MIM was not introduced to make the pistol better it was introduced to make it cheaper to manufacture. It is a perfect example of what I call the "pinto principle".... Add to that more and more manufacturers are outsourcing their MIM parts to the lowest bidder. So you have compounding factor in the race to the bottom.
Again it is not that MIM cannot produce a good part. It is not that MIM can't be used in guns and aerospace etc... it is that the mentality that is driving the use of MIM is a race to the bottom in terms of cost which in the end can only bring down quality. The same can happen to forged and cast parts as well but MIM seems to take the brunt of the criticism in the gun world.
If I have the choice between MIM and forged steel I will pay a little more and go with the forged part but I understand not everyone else would agree. I personally wish it was not used but I understand why it is. The avg consumer keeps demanding more for less and MIM is one of the ways the gun makers achieve this. So in a sense we have done it to ourselves. End of soap box rant!!!
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