I may not have owned enough machines, to be sure of this, but it has been my experience that the Chinese stuff is the lowest quality- and then the Taiwan stuff is better, especially cheaper, generic, house brand Taiwan like this. Obviously, if Amada, or someone similar has some machines made in taiwan, their quality control will be better than the kind where they put any name you want on em as long as you buy a container full at a time.
Then, in terms of price and quality, would come the turks- some low end turkish stuff is neck and neck with generic Taiwan, some Taiwan is better, some Turkish stuff is better.
Durma is currently the largest sheet metal fabrication tool manufacturing company in the world- I would call it mid range, maybe low mid range, in quality, but miles ahead of generic stuff.
http://www.durmausa.com/index.php/site/info/ms_mechanical_shears
The problem with the low end american companies like tennsmith and national is it aint modern, it aint cheap, but its solid, old school designs. But usually smaller- both top out at about this size, their expertise is in manual 22 gage equipment, not powered ten gage. Mechanical, too, mostly.
All of these would be in the sub 20 grand range for a machine like this- with some of the better taiwan or turkish, nudging 20 and above.
Then, you have a big step up to genuine industrial stuff- Accushear was mentioned, as was Amada, there are several other american companies and lots of imports- but hydraulic, with power back gages, the prices jump dramatically, pretty darn quick. Cnc, add another ten grand or so, minimum.
200 cuts a day is production- and I wouldnt think a ten thousand dollar shear would last more than a few years at that level of work. No matter where its from.
the Tennsmith 10 gage x 72" is over sixteen grand.
thats cheap for a shear like this- and probably the low end of price range for a decent machine- fifteen to thirty, depending on bells and whistles and quality. Dont know if Amada is still making em this small, if they are, expect real quality, and a price to match- probably over thirty.
Tennsmith, Sheet, Metal, Equipment, JWK, Machinery, Sales, Co
