What cost 1,000,000 pcs 5' foam eggs?

[bigcat]

Yes, another strange question from me! I havent the foggiest where would be a good ng to ask this...

Lets say I wanted to make a vast number of 5' foam eggs, comprised of 3 layers: a thin outer hard shell, a thick layer of structural foam (those 2 layers are just like furniture used to be in the 70s), and finally a 2" layer of lightweight foam on the inside to cushion the contents in case of a medium to hard whack. Also these things must be openable somewhere. And I'm talking about over a million of them!

Now you know Im nuts. I'm not going to actually buy them, as all the technical questions are not yet answered, but need to get a handle on what they might cost in high volume. If its too much, the idea's dead. If its ok I'll continue.

The egg would be in the region of 5' long and 2' wide, and probably more sausagey than eggy, but somewhat eggy to maximise strength per material volume.

Alternatively, maybe you could advise me which medicine to take!

thanks, NT

[andrewpreece]

Is this to do with Africa?

Andy

[BigWallop]

Try glass fibre fabricators. They can make the solid frame for foam or cushion to be applied to.

[Owain]

I was going to suggest

rec.arts.theatre.stagecraft

then I see you wanted a million of the things. For a million of anything, try the commercial desk at the Chinese embassy :-)

Owain

[Rob Morley]

olanzapine or risperidone :-)

[dennis]

Why do you want to polute the world with these plastic eggs?

Try something more environmentally friendly:-

Steel barrels with paper packing? Cardboard tubes, boxes?

[bigcat]

those would be no good. Despite using a vast tonnage of foamed plastic, they would still save on resources.

I guess no-one else has the least idea either.

NT

[bigcat]

those would be no good. Despite using a vast tonnage of foamed plastic, they would still save on resources.

I guess no-one else has the least idea either.

I wonder if theres a related product manufactured in quantity? Like lots of foam chairs or something?

NT

[Grunff]

If I tell you, will you tell me what it's for?

Think car bumpers. High volume manufacture, hard plastic shell, foam interior, about the same kind of size.

[bigcat]

good point, except for the size. These things are going to be egg/sausage shaped, 5' long, and 2' wide. I cant think of anything else with similarish dimensions as well as construction. I only need get a rough ballpark figure at this point.

thanks, NT

[Grunff]

Doesn't really make a difference - the mould is roughly the same size (in an order-of-magnitude sense), and the manufacturing process will be very similar. Any company producing bumpers would be able to make them with the right tooling.

As far as costs go, a finger-in-the-air guess would say between £5 and £20 per unit (assuming bumper-like construction). Transporting them away from the factory to the final destination won't be cheap - you can't fit that many into a shipping container.

[Aidan]

Surfboards type manufacture, hard shell, foam core. Maybe vacuum mould the shell. Some small canoes are made with centrifugal casting using polypropylene (I think), the plastic in granular form is tipped into a heated mould, which is spun to coat the inside of the mould. I think you'd need a plastics specialist to advise you on the best materials and methods.

[Mary Fisher]

What are they for?

Mary

[dennis]

How is it going to save on resources? Are these things reusable? How much weight? Handles to move them? There are a lot of unanswered questions.

Maybe you should think about resin impregnated paper for the outside. Why do you need structural foam are you building boats to float stuff (bananas?) down rivers?

[Suz]

snip

Fantastic.

Surely this get the prize for the most ambitious project, bar none, on this newsgroup.

I reckon they will contain mini-daleks to sell to the Americans.

Suzanne

[Tim Morley]

He is not going to tell us ;)

[Mary Fisher]

Well, we didn't really want to know anyway did we!

[Simon]

Surely we can't outsource all manufacturing to China? I think it's important that we retain a strong domestic giant-foam-egg manufacturing capability.

[Aidan]

Whatever it was, I suspect it had halucinogenic properties.

Is the giant foam egg project a PFI enterprise?

[Mary Fisher]

I agree.

Support home industry!

Mary