Are all Scubapro regulators made in Italy?

[BeCool]

Are all Scubapro regulators made in Italy? Where are their factories?

 

[DA Aquamaster]

It's a global economy. Asking that question is about as fruitful as asking if all Fords are made in the US or asking if all Toyotas are made in Japan.

I won't even get into the "made" versus "assembled" issue.

Scubapro has had a long standing relationship with Tabata where Scubapro contracts wth Tabata to manufacture their designs. This enables Scubapro to utilize Tabata's world class state of the art manufacturing facilities and it allows Tabata access to Scubapro's xcellent designs that in some cases Tabata then sells under liscense through TUSA (Tabata USA).

It makes sense for Scubapro to do that, as the volume of regs they sell, large as it may be, is not enough to justify aquiring and maintaining dedicated production facilities. If you look around you will find many compnaies that design regulators but only a handful that do the actual production work for those companies.

Scubapro customers benefit in the end as the regs that ar produced are of much higher quality and/or lower priced than would be possible if Scubapro tried to acquire and maintain its own production facilities.

 

[John Bantin]

 

[Sam Miller III]

John

Great post & video !
I was unaware that SCUBA Pro regs have been produced in Italy --and for over 40 (43) years.

I knew the SCUBA Pro founders Gus and Dick rather well, but never discussed the Italian manufacturing . I does make a lot of sense since Gus was from Italy. When they acquired the company from Healthways they dived up responsibilities, Dick would establish a dealer net work and Gus was to scour the world for products to sell~~ recall the wrist watch compass and thermometer ? Or the Jet Fins? Gus discovered them and introduced them to the American Market.

So many hidden interesting stories and so little time

SAM Miller III
ps- Note that you are vintage BSAC...What ever happened to Leo Zanelli ? He was a giant in the BSAC then suddenly disappeared...Hopefully he is not diving in the big reef in the sky
sdm

 

[tridacna]

Scubapro publish this information annually. All regulators are sourced from Italy.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Scubapro publish this information annually. All regulators are sourced from Italy.

"Sourced" is the key word here.

Let me give you a firearms example where the laws regarding importation and noting who manufactured it are very, very strict.

FEG made a very faithful copy of the Browning Hi Power as the FEG P9 and sold it to both military and commercial customers. FEG is a Hungarian company and the firearms made there are stamped to that effect, and an import mark is then also stamped when they are shipped to the US to denote the importer and the city where they are located.

Charles Daly was the upscale banner for K.B.I which was a firearms importer not a manufacturer. K.B.I however wanted to build a higher end, US made, non imported Hi Power to compete more directly with the Browning Hi Power. The end result was that KBI imported FEG parts and then had the US located companies Dan Wesson, and later Magnum Research, finish and assemble them. As result they are considered to be 'US Made' firearms, but they have the same FEG made parts as an FEG made P9. The only difference is where the final finish and assembly was done and the resulting roll marks on the firearms (plus a couple detail changes, such as the sights and grips).

Let's consider this in the context of regulators.

I've seen the Scubapro video before and watching it again it was interesting to note the careful word usage. The statement is made that Scubapro regulators are "built" in Casarza Italy, along with a nice shot of the Scubapro factory. In the next scene it is explained that the regulators are designed by Scubapro and that their R&D department is also located in Casarza Italy. Then you see some metal stamping and brazing of metal second stage cases, with no location specified. Next you see industrial robots and CNC machinery performing various machining processes on first stage bodies.

Scubapro then makes the statement that "part of this work is done offsite by selected, specialized suppliers that meet Scubapro's strict requirements and use top of the line industrial equipment. This ensures a quick turn around of components and the highest quality." That's where Tabata comes in.

Tabata makes the parts to Scubapro's designs and specified tolerances. Scubapro has Tabata do this work because Tabata has the top quality industrial manufacturing capability to do this. Scubapro is a big company, but it's not big enough and does not sell enough regulators to make owning this production capability economically worthwhile. Tabata makes regulators for several companies and as such they have the volume to justify the over head to purchase, maintain, and update the equipment.

In fact, Beuchat, Aqua Lung/La Spirotechnique, Sherwood, Poseidon and Tabata are pretty much (I may have forgotten one or two) the only companies that "make" scuba regulators. Every one else either designs their regs and has one of these companies make the parts for them, or they license the design from one of the companies who designs them, and then has one of these companies make them to their requested specifications and tolerances. In either case they may do the actual assembly themselves, or farm that out to another company as well.

In Scubapro's case, once Scubapro receives the actual parts from the supplier, they do their own quality assurance checks on the parts they have received and then assemble the regulator, test the assembled regulator and serial number the regulator before packaging it.

They technically don't "make" their regulators in Italy any more than Charles Daly made their Hi Powers in the US, but it doesn't really matter. What matters is the final quality of the product.

The Scubapro - Tabata relationship has been a very interesting one. Tabata is the parent company of TUSA - which stands for Tabata USA. Tabata also licenses Scubapro regulators and sells them under the TUSA banner. The Mk 5 and Air 2 were early examples, as was the Mk 16, and currently TUSA sells the R1000, which is a Mk 11. The arrangement gives TUSA access to superb regulator designs, and it gives Scubapro an opportunity to offset the manufacturing costs it pays to Tabata.

Originally, Scubapro regulators were made by Beuchat, as were the original Jet Fins. They are not common, but you can still find Jet Fins with the Beuchat name and logo on them that predate Scubapro. I'm not sure when the switch from Beuchat to Tabata occurred, but it was during Mk 5 production.

 

[Erich S]

USD regulators were also made in Italy in the 70s. Not sure where they're made today.

 

[John Bantin]

I have often visited the factories in Rapallo (Mares), Casarza (Scubapro), Genova (Cressi and Ocean Reef), Nice (Aqua Lung), Marseilles (Beuchat) and Blackburn (Aqua Lung/Apeks). I don't know which country the brass or technopolymer is sourced from! They have to conform to EN250.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

During the 1970s many Scubapro regs were manufactured in Compton, California by Under Sea Industries, Inc. They issued a recall in 1979 for model 11-108-000 second-stage regulator and to model 12-103-000 and 12-010-000 regulator systems. Scubapro regs are now manufactured in Italy.

 

[tbone1004]

@MaxBottomtime what are you basing that last statement on?
It specifically says at 1:43 that part of the machining work is done by other companies contracted by scubapro...