Are there any regulators made in USA?

[tridacna]

I still don't get it.
A little country like Sweden making Poseidons and all the rest of quality things they make there.
A little country like Italy making Scubapro's and sexy cars like Ferrari's and Lamborghini's and the finest suits and high quality leather shoes.
My wife bought a high quality vacuum made in Germany and it was $1000, she loves it! It was worth every penny.
And in a country the size of ours with our technology and our man power and our resources somehow we can't make sh!t!
It's very frustrating.
I would be willing to pay whatever it took if I knew I was paying someone's livable wages and supporting a domestic industry, but it's not even an option.
Buying vintage stuff that was made here decades ago doesn't count.

Tabata (TUSA) owns the manufacturing facilities in Italy - not SP. Where they get the parts from is another “mystery”. They share designs with the Mk5 and Mk16 and manufacture for other brands too.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

So now Eric can start cranking out the reg bodies and ship them to you for plating

It would be all 316 stainless, no plating.
The first stage would be a balanced piston that's sealable, and the second stage would be an all metal body with a barrel poppet, balanced, something between a 1085 and a 109 but with a venturi adjust and a tuning knob.
If you ever scratched it or dented it could be straightened/metal finished and polished out.
If it ever cracked it could be TIG welded and repaired. A true lifetime reg.
And parts would be available to the end user of course.

 

[rhwestfall]

And cost...

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Diving is a very expensive sport that attracts the cheapest sons of bitches in the world.
And that folks is the root of the entire problem.

 

[jellycatsdad]

NEX is 100% OEM in Taiwan by Yuhsin systems

Yea, it sounds like the same deal as IST and ODS being the ODM for Tusa/Scubapro’s soft goods(fins/masks) and HOG/Deep6/DGX. Scubapro does make their regs outside of Genoa, Italy(I think Mares/Head, Dive System and Cressi are nearby) but the small parts can come from anywhere from within the EU. Some Tusa regs are made by Scubapro, only their high-end compact one is made in Japan.

I think Huish has Atomic regs assembled in Orange County, CA. In Atomic’s marketing they were proud of it. Oceanic/Zeagle might be made in Italy or Taiwan.

 

[jellycatsdad]

Tabata (TUSA) owns the manufacturing facilities in Italy - not SP. Where they get the parts from is another “mystery”. They share designs with the Mk5 and Mk16 and manufacture for other brands too.

Weird, go to Tusa’s website and they don’t list a plant in Italy:

Contact TUSA

tusa.com

株式会社タバタ

株式会社タバタのウェブサイトです。スイミングゴーグルVIEW、ダイビング用品TUSA、シュノーケリング用品ReefTourer、ゴルフ用品TABATA GOLF等スポーツ・レジャー用品に関する事業内容、採用情報、会社概要を紹介しています。

tabata.jp

SP does list their Italian plant in their reg documentation. But yes, the Scubapro-Tusa/Tabata relationship goes back a long time.

Their Taiwan plant: 株式会社タバタ

 

[USdiver1]

Up until the pandemic and Bryan Pennington’s death, the Argonaut Kraken, a modern double hose regulator, was assembled in Florida from most if not all USA sourced parts, making it one of the last regulators made here.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Except for @USdiver1's post above, nobody has given a definitive answer.
I get a lot of "I think", "I suppose", but no one really knows for sure.
I'm not sure a deep dig would even turn up anything. I think most all of the info is secret and not something that any manufacturer is willing to expand on, especially in these times.
The only thing we know for sure is when something
Is made in China or Taiwan, they are proud about it and there seems to be no hiding anything. You can bet the product was made 100% in one of those countries if it was advertised as such. Who would China outsource to?
It's also true that there is a culture of a heavy source of origin coverup. It seems almost embarrassing to them to admit the origins.
"Assembled in USA from foreign parts or materials"
Name the source of the "foreign" materials.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I'm just going to let this whole thing go.
It's not worth the mental bandwidth to worry about.
It started as a curiosity question but in the end I'm not sure it really matters.
If we were genuinely worried about it we should have done something 50 years ago.
In the end, people just want stuff cheap.
It's always been that way and it will always be that way.

 

[Johnoly]

If it ever cracked it could be TIG welded and repaired.

Skin scars are sexy because they always have a story with them.
..
like that time a friend yelled out 'Hold my beer, yaa all watch this"