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A comment on Swedish Exports of Ball Bearings. Parent comment

Re:Swedish Exports of Ball Bearings by nom on Saturday January 18, 2025 @07:14AM (#42747800)
Making featureless metal balls seems very easy, they have only one dimension and are perfectly symmetric.

.. until you realize that:

- they have extremely tight tolerances - they function together, a single defect one ruins the whole assembly - you have to make millions of them for cheap

Some things are deceptively hard. For a related fun fact, check out China's ballpoint pen adventures.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Swedish Exports of Ball Bearings by Cumpiler69 on Saturday January 18, 2025 @07:17AM (#42747815)
>China's ballpoint pen adventures

True. Though they've moved up in the world since then. They now have their own semiconductor fabs. Chinese industry of today is way more advanced than the China of the 90's making low margin nick-nacks.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Swedish Exports of Ball Bearings by binary132 on Saturday January 18, 2025 @11:38AM (#42749502)
go ahead then, explain their high-speed rail issues…
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Swedish Exports of Ball Bearings by Cumpiler69 on Sunday January 19, 2025 @02:19PM (#42760611)
?
[ Parent | on HN ]