Geoff et al,
I saw a valve manufacturer advertising that their products were of such high quality that they even supplied the medical industry and showed a picture of a valve that I recognised as coming from a blood gas analyser.
When I contact the valve manufacturer they said that they had an exclusive sales agreement with the company so could not sell it to us.
I also found out who the original manufacturer of a single use item was and bought direct from them. When the equipment manufacturer found out, they changed the connection of the disposable slightly and set up an exclusive contract deal. So I had to go back to paying the "medical" price.
One foolish equipment manufacturer left the delivery note for the manufacturer of a bought in part in the box. When I went to them directly they could not sell the part to me because of an exclusivity agreement. But would sell me the bare part and told me where to buy the plugs that fitted that manufacturers equipment (they made the same part for a couple of companies and just fitted different plugs). As a tax payer he was not happy with the way his money was being grabbed by the multinational equipment manufacturers. He knew his selling price and the medical equipment manufacturers price and could see a large difference.
I do believe that the price of original equipment is kept (relatively) low to be competitive but the manufacturers use parts to keep an income stream coming in.
Robert
