Since the introduction of the original Santana Parabolic springs outside Spain by Paul Heijstee of T.I.Console bv (TIC) back in 1997, there are several companies who copied this idea or concept.
Mr. Ray Wood of Wise Owl Innovations, Vancouver Canada showed immediately interest. He wanted to become TICs distributor for Canada and bought a couple of sets to start. However, he never marketed these first TIC/Santana springs but instead he took them to a local spring manufacturer, Standens, to copy them. Being a clever but careful business man he made numerous small changes to the design of the TIC/Santana spring to make sure he was not illegally coping them. These included remarkable chances which seemingly do not serve any purpose. The main objective was to get cheap springs that could last at least one year (warranty). Comfort and load carying capacity where not is concern and subsequently they are not capable of doing so. He is selling them under the name Rocky Mountian.
Then came the British. The big whole sale parts sellers in the UK are always alert to changes but they where not interested in the offer made by TIC. After 2 years Bearmach came up with the idea to steel it, probably they discovered that they weren't selling normal springs any longer. Looking at the design I think they did not design anything but bluntly copied the Santana springs and clamped the helper leaf to the second leaf under force. These springs are made by British Springs Ltd.
A small UK based spring manufacturer called GME came in by copying yet more bluntly the BS spring. They are a small company just in it to compete with BS so profit was not #1. They are selling cheap to everybody (mainly to Britpart). The prodcution is probably in Asia hence the price.
The last spring-off was made by Chris Perfect Components in the UK. Being the first UK distributor for TIC springs from 1998. Right from the beginning CPC had a very close business relation with TIC. Quality was their main concern. Many improvements to the TIC spring design where made in close cooperation with Chris Perfect although he knew nothing about the technical back ground of the parabolic spring. In September 2004, one day after Paul Heijstee's birthday, Chris Perfect introduced his own version of the TIC spring, out of the blue, without letting Paul know of his intentions to abandon TIC and taking things in his own hand. Being a "Perfect" copy of the TIC spring Paul decided to take this case to court. In the meantime Chris Perfect retired and sold his company.
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May 2006; Paul Heijstee decided to changed the name of his company from "T.I.Console" to "Heystee Automotive bv". Subsequently the brand name of the "TIC Parabolic springs" was changed from to "HST Parabolic Suspension Systems". Also a better factory was found in Europe, one that could match the high quality standards Paul wants. The development of new systems for other brands like Toyota, Jeep, Daihatsu, Nissan and Mitsubishi was finished and are now selling all over the world. The Land Rover and Toyota Land Cruiser kits are TÜV apporved which means that they are now the only legal parabolic suspension systems for the German market.
Many thanks to Paul Heijstee from whom I received a lot of inside information on this subject. If anybody thinks that this information is incorrect or wants to ad some more useful information please e-mail me Jumper and I will correct or ad if necessary.
Jumper
Copyright 2007