Facom 440 Updated Version?

[cleeny]

To those who own Facom 440 series wrenches,

I recently purchased a 14 pc clip set of the wrenches from bigredtoolbox in the UK via ebay (we'll call the wrench from this set A) and one 13mm wrench from a reputable vendor in South Korea (let's call this B).

Upon comparing A and B, I have noticed a few differences:

A
thinner (toward open end) when viewed from the top
"clearer" stampings: for example, the number 13 is thinner and more "clear"
laser engraving that consists of the letter P only and no additional numbers (P and nothing else is laser etched on ALL sizes)

B
thicker (toward open end) when viewed from the top
overall "less-precise" logos, numbers, etc.
laser etching that consists of numbers and the letter L (768001 L to be exact)

Please review the images for reference.

Assuming neither is fake...
Has Facom updated their 440s?
Are numbers missing from A since they are a part of a set?
Are 440s in a set meant to be different than individually-purchased wrenches?

The most interesting difference is the thickness since it may determine strength. I did a search and found nothing.

I thought this was interesting and thought I'd share my observations with you all. Any thoughts?

 

[nicksnothereman]

To those who own Facom 440 series wrenches,

I recently purchased a 14 pc clip set of the wrenches from bigredtoolbox in the UK via ebay (we'll call the wrench from this set A) and one 13mm wrench from a reputable vendor in South Korea (let's call this B).

Upon comparing A and B, I have noticed a few differences:

A
thinner (toward open end) when viewed from the top
"clearer" stampings: for example, the number 13 is thinner and more "clear"
laser engraving that consists of the letter P only and no additional numbers (P and nothing else is laser etched on ALL sizes)

B
thicker (toward open end) when viewed from the top
overall "less-precise" logos, numbers, etc.
laser etching that consists of numbers and the letter L (768001 L to be exact)

Please review the images for reference.

Assuming neither is fake...
Has Facom updated their 440s?
Are numbers missing from A since they are a part of a set?
Are 440s in a set meant to be different than individually-purchased wrenches?

The most interesting difference is the thickness since it may determine strength. I did a search and found nothing.

I thought this was interesting and thought I'd share my observations with you all. Any thoughts?

I don't know a lot about facom tools but if you bought from south korea that generally means it was made in either china or taiwan. Most of the chinese wrenches are a bit thicker than their taiwanese counterparts. Maybe they switched lines from one place to the other, or possibly were seeing failure with the old setup and made them thicker.

Basically what I'm saying is that they were probably made in different places to different specs.

 

[cleeny]

Not sure about the 14pc set I got from the UK, but the 13mm wrench I got here locally is made in Taiwan for sure as it said so on the plastic baggie, which follows since the 440s are supposedly made by a company in Taiwan.

But, lo and behold, I was just about to throw out the cardboard backing that the set was attached to and found that the new wrenches are "up to 15% thinner" or more compact. I guess I essentially answered my own question. (Take a look at the attached image.)

For those who care, the length is still the same, the overall finish is slightly better IMO in that it appears more "precise", but the new open head thickness is noticeably thinner.

So, more compact? Only in terms of thickness near the open end. Better strength? I'm not sure, but I'm sure it is still strong enough for what it is designed to do. By the way the item number of the set is 440.JP14PB

Still, I am a bit curious as to why there is only a P for all wrenches in the set.

 

[cleeny]

Sorry, had to edit the pic and reattach...

 

[neophyte]

European made wrenches ave a tendancy to have thinner open ends when compared to wrenches from countries like the USA. Maybe Facom got complaints that the original 440 wrenches were too thick so they decided to thin the design.

 

[Rico.]

Maybe Facom got complaints that the original 440 wrenches were too thick so they decided to thin the design.

This would be my guess too, but that all it is.... a guess.

I have lots of different sets of spanners with thin open ends so I am actually pleased
I have a full set of the "old" 440's as the thicker open end's are supremely strong
and do not spread under extreme pressure. Maybe the new thinner ones are just
as strong... Or I suppose it's possible they could run the two sets, but I doubt it.

Can't help with the "p" maybe a new manufacturing date stamp, we'll have to wait
until we see a few more sets.

 

[neophyte]

Now comes the annoying problem of buying wrenches to fill out a set and getting non-mathing ones in different thicknesses.