Chinese copy method

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chinese copy redirects here, for other information on copying in china see Intellectual property in the People's Republic of China

The Chinese copy method is a procedure by which a device, mechanism, or part may be duplicated without plans or specifications. This method is a common practice where a repair or reproduction is to be made at low expenditure or where replacement parts may be unavailable. It was less commonly used for quantity production for resale unless the cost of labor was relatively low. The advent of modern measuring and manufacturing procedures have substantially reduced the labor component in such production and so the method is becoming more commonly applied to the production of counterfeit goods. The method is related to but less sophisticated than high quality reverse engineering, where the goal is to extract the design information (perhaps by legitimate means) in order to discover the original specifications, methodologies and trade secrets, often with the goal of producing an improved and usually non-infringing product.

[edit] Modern common use of the term

As to describing a legitimate method, the term has long been use (describing the use of an existing component as a cutting and drilling template to produce a copy) among repair persons, mechanics, and millwrights.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Etymology

The term comes from a common practice in China in the 19th and early 20th centuries where western manufactured goods would be reproduced for local use or for international sale, often with little understanding of the original design and manufacturing methods, requirements for accuracy, appropriate materials and metallurgy, or sometimes even the intended application of the object, and so often producing items of inferior quality, utility, and durability when compared to the original prototype.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Applying the method

To make a Chinese copy, the object is disassembled into its components. Folded sheet metal components may be flattened after drilling or cutting welds. Each component is used as a template to produce a copy from raw material, by using the original to draw the outline on new metal stock and by clamping the original to the new piece and using it as a drill guide. Curves and folds of sheet material of the original are reproduced in the duplicate, and any welding performed. For one or a few pieces the results may be adequate for a well functioning repair, and if the original failure was due to use of too-thin or insufficiently corrosion-resistant materials the replacement may even be made more durable than the original, with any inaccuracies compensated for by the mechanic installing the part. The use of such a copy is actually an advantage where the original part was not made to precise specifications but may have been installed on the original machine by match drilling, where holes are imprecisely drilled through a shroud, plate, or guard to form holes to be tapped for attachment screws. Since each machine is slightly different the use of this copy method (or a two-step method using an intermediate reversible template) is especially appropriate.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Extending the method

For larger quantity production the components of the original may be used as guides to create more durable tooling. For example, a soft aluminum sheet component may be used (after removing fasteners such as rivets) as a template to create a drilling guide in a harder metal, which is then used to produce additional aluminum pieces to be reassembled. Similar drilling guides are used for components to which the sheet is to be fastened, and if these are made from the new guide a satisfactory degree of accuracy may be obtained.

The method is not limited to simple mechanical devices that are easily disassembled. The method may be applied in the interest of producing a device whose commercial exchange is prohibited by national security concerns or illegaly to avoid the cost of licensing the original design or designing a original and competitive product.

As an example of its application to warfighting, the quiet and wakeless Mark 18 electric torpedos employed by the United States Navy late in World War II were Westinghouse Electric copies of a German design, the G7e (modified for the common torpedo diameter in use and with improved batteries), from several examples found as unexploded devices on U.S. coastal beaches.^[1]

B-29 original

TU-4 copy

In another case from the same era, the Soviet Union appropriated several B-29 Superfortress strategic bombers (landed under emergency conditions) late in World War II and made durable production tooling for the airframe by application of the method, producing their first postwar strategic bomber, the Tupolev Tu-4 and a derivative international airliner, the Tu-70.^[2] These are the largest and most complex device produced by the method and its production also entailed substantial reverse engineering that required a high order of engineering and manufacturing knowledge.

[edit] Questionable uses of the method

[edit] In automobile body parts

As to legitimate sources, particularly for body parts, some aftermarket parts are manufactured by the original supplier to the manufacture and can be of equivalent quality and lower cost than identical parts that may be purchased from the manufacturer, with the latter being referred to as OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) parts. Many such parts when produced by a contractor to the manufacturer (see outsourcing) are more correctly called OES (Original Equipment Supplier), since they are not made by the vehicle producer. In other cases, the manufacturer may license the use of the production tooling to a supplier for production of aftermarket body parts. Such secondary production is typically available for older vehicles from three to five years after the vehicle's model year, with production and availability extending up to an additional fifteen years, or longer in the case of popular special interest vehicles.^[3]

Sometimes, however, automobile replacement parts (particularly body parts for late-model vehicles) are duplicated by a third party using tooling created by measuring or molding an OEM part to create soft tooling. The resultant part will likely not be identical to the original owing to material springback, rapid wear of the tooling, and other factors. Such a copy can be less suitable for a replacement body part in a vehicle since any additional labor requirements required to attach and adjust the reproduction may obviate the advantage of a cheaper component. A far more significant potential problem is that the use of inferior metal and/or metal treatment may lead to corrosion problems from which the OEM part is protected to a greater extent. In some cases the original vehicle manufacturer's parts may be protected by copyright, and in some case the entire vehicle may be copied in violation of copyright, at least in its external appearance.^[4][5] Some automobile insurance companies require the use of other than OEM parts where such parts are cheaper and some of these insurers have been successfully challenged in court regarding this requirement.^[6] Other insurance companies and many repair shops are proud to advertise their use of only OEM parts when such parts are available.

[edit] In appropriation of other's efforts

The development and refinement of a product can involve much research, product and market development, feedback from customers, and refinement of design and materials selection. Often such products lack patent, trade secret, or design patent protection, as such protections are often beyond the means of small independent developers or may not be available to the product. Sometimes a large distribution company will simply appropriate a product's design by measuring an original device (rather than obtaining a license from the developer) and have an offshore manufacturer produce an identical copy, typically with trivial cosmetic changes (such as a different paint color or cover shape) in order to avoid trade dress claims from the original developer. While often legally defensible, such practices are taken by some victims as exhibiting an ethical deficiency, especially where the original designer has not even been approached concerning a license.

[edit] Inappropriate and illegal uses of the method

[edit] Appropriation of printed circuit design

Original two sided computer graphics artwork left, and completed board (with no apparent copyright). The computer file source for the left image is composed of seven information layers: the top and bottom traces (red and blue) and pads for surface-mount and through-hole components (light gray), the through-plated holes of various sizes for through-hole components and vias and the larger device mounting holes at the corners (none of the holes are shown here); the top and bottom solder mask layers (on the final product this is the transparent green covering the silver traces and is mostly generated automatically by the design system); and the yellow informational text and images (commonly called the "slkscreen", layer, although screening is also used to print the solder resist masks), and the board trim lines (magenta). Board areas with no trace or pad on either side are shown in black. The goal of the copying process is either to produce a functionally identical board without access to the computer files or to reverse the production direction, obtaining the artwork computer files from the board for subsequent modification and use.

Electronic components containing printed circuit boards that use single or two-sided layouts and do not employ proprietary integrated circuit designs are quite easy to copy, with the PC board and the component list sometimes embodying a substantial effort in the underlying electronics design, component selection, and verification of functionality and durability. To duplicate the board all parts and sockets are desoldered and removed from the board. Each side of the board is then photographed and a new 1:1 photonegative is produced in a projector. This photonegative for a side is than used to make a contact print in photoresist over a coper plated fiber reenforced plastic board. Subsequent etching of the light exposed areas removes excess copper, leaving only the traces. If it is not the intent of the duplicator to produce a counterfeit part but rather a functioning part without attribution, any copyright notices may be removed. Duplicate boards may then be produced in any quantity and "stuffed" with the appropriate sockets and parts. A high quality counterfeit may even be able to pass casual inspection by the repair services of the original manufacture. This technique was used to produce counterfeit memory boards for desktop and minicomputers when such units were quite expensive.

[edit] Appropriation of multilayer circuit board designs

A multilayer computer motherboard, fully populated with descrete components, integrated circuits (except for the central processor) and connectors to accept memory, video, other peripheral cards, and cables from hard disk and optical drives

Multilayer circuit boards typically contain from two to six internal layers, hidden from view and are often employed as computer motherboards and video boards. These internal connections are brought to components and to other layers by plated holes called vias. To reveal the hidden circutry sequential milling process is performed on a bare board. The multiple images are then used to reconstruct the masks, drilling, and plating and other information to re-create the various layers and vias (plated through holes) of a multilayer board.

[edit] Appropriation of microcomponent designs

A microprocessor design

The design of microprocessors and peripheral integrated circuits can involve substantial expenditures in design and engineering. These designs may be copyrighted or may be considered trade secrets by the manufacturer. Such devices are commonly packaged by embedding in plastic or ceramic, and so hiding the design.

Image of a microprocessor before encapsulation

Using a method similar to that described above for circuit boards, a counterfeiter or industrial thief may appropriate the design, and so avoid the engineering costs, by milling or grinding small amounts from the top of the package and photographic the results at appropriate depths. This process is far more difficult than that performed on circuit boards owing the the extremely small size of features and the microscopic thickness of the layers. The multiple images are then used to reconstruct the photolithographic masks and doping procedures used to create the integrated circuit.

[edit] Counterfeit parts

The methods outlined above have been extended by international firms, often based in Asia and Eastern Europe. In a more modern method the object to be copied is carefully measured (often using sophisticated measuring machinery) and a computer file is produced. This file may then be used to print a dimension drawing of the object for use or for further refinement in a Computer Aided Drawing (CAD) system. The resultant images may be used as a production specification or to produce instruction files for Computer Automated Manufacturing (CAM). A product duplicated by these methods can be equivalent in appearance and functionality to the original, but it may be of lesser durability due to the use of inferior or inappropriate materials, heat treatments, anti-corrosion coatings, and a lack of knowledge of the original manufacture's trade secrets (such trade secrets being a goal of modern industrial espionage). If labeled to appear identical to the original product such parts may be dangerous if used in a critical application.^[7]

[edit] Batteries

The camera manufacture Canon has distributed warnings of unauthorized reproductions of camera batteries that may cause a fire or explosion, either inside or outside of the camera.^[8] Only by very careful examination or by comparison with a legitimate product can the counterfeit be detected, mostly due to a slightly fuzzy Canon logo.

[edit] Aircraft parts

There is an ongoing concern in the aircraft industry that counterfeit replacement parts are in the maintenance stream for both military and civil airframes, with parts as simple and critical as fasteners and as complex as starters and landing gear components. Many problems in this area are associated with rebuilt parts for which the "paper trail" of sources and actions has not been properly maintained, in addition to the use of non-certified replacement components.^[9][10]

[edit] See also

• Intellectual property in the People's Republic of China
• Reverse engineering, a more sophisticated means of extracting production information that may not be illegal when certain procedures are followed and patents are not violated.
• Black box analysis, a form of reverse engineering applied to computer software, application-specific integrated circuits and microprocessors containing internal microcode, where a functional specification is written by observing inputs and outputs. If "clean room" techniques are used this specification is then passed to another group ignorant of the original device that will then produce a functionally equivalent system from that specification using newly crafted internal parts and/or computer codes. It is using methods such as these and by reference to openly available manuals and specifications that Advanced Micro Devices is available to produce noninfringing functional equivalents to Intel Corperation's x86 microprocessor designs.

[edit] References