Why is the Firenock “G” series more expensive than the previous Firenock?
The Firenock “G” series uses a custom-designed and custom-built ultra-mini acceleration switch (UMAS). This is the smallest acceleration switch ever built commercially. The size of the switch is only 2 mm in diameter and 6 mm long. When a certain miniature size is reached, the material cost is no longer the major issue; the tooling is where the expense is now. In the case of the UMAS, the costs add up in all areas. To make the UMAS as small as possible, we needed custom tooling that is not normally seen in the industry and which had to be developed just for us. Firenock had been quoted as much as $450,000.00 for just one part of the automation… to save $1.00 per switch on time and labor! To make a switch that is reliable and can handle no less than 10,000,000 cycles of activation and up to 1,500G in the canister, with metal that does not corrode; there is nothing known to mankind that is better than silver or gold. Thus all Firenock UMAS are internally-plated with no less than 2µm of g
