Date:         Thu, 21 Feb 2002 19:57:59 -0800
Reply-To:     Mark Thoma <thoma@MINDSPRING.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Mark Thoma <thoma@MINDSPRING.COM>
Subject:      VERY UNUSUAL REQUEST  (long)
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Hey all,

This is a strange one.  Got a buddy who owns the patent rights, working models, prototypes, etc. of a pretty revolutionary heat treating process/equipment.  Said process makes steel parts approximately 30% stronger than conventional heat treating.  Several large automotive/industrial parts manufacturer are testing the process but because of liability concerns that testing will probably take several years and hundreds of thousands if not millions of cycles before the lawyers sign off on using it in production. So tonight he and I were brainstorming and I said "you know what you need is an enviroment where product liability is probably not a big concern and wear is accelerated.  something like a race car enviroment."  he thought that sounded pretty good but countered "the parts would have to be pre-machining. i.e. find a manufacturer who was willing to send us a couple of axles or crankshafts or springs or torsion bars, etc that would normally have a maximum life of only a couple of races before breaking."  that way the manufacturer would quickly be able to find out just how good (or not good) the process is.
So here's the deal fellow listees.  Any of you have any contacts in the hi-performance automotive manufacturing sector who may be interested in building really strong parts for the race enviroment?

Thank you in advance.

Mark Thoma