At Blackthorn our core business is controlling exhaust emissions but we also supply many standard exhaust systems and silencers to the OEM sector. Our production partners have the capabilities to make either large batches of exhausts using the latest automated production lines, or alternatively small batches by hand. Customers have a choice of aluminised mild steel or stainless steel. The former is ideal for medium to high production volumes in the most popular sizes, whilst stainless steel opens up a broader range of sizes as well as the possibility of small batch production.
Capacity guide
| Material | Tube size range (mm) | Silencer box diameter (mm) | Typical batch size |
| Aluminised mild steel | 16 to 60 | 90 to 300 | 50+ |
| Stainless steel | 25 to 250 | 90 to 1000 | 10+ |
Materials and manufacturing techniques
In recent years there has been significant progress in the choice of materials and manufacturing techniques available to those exhaust manufacturers which are willing and able to invest. These have made improvements possible in terms of noise abatement, consistency, durability and cost of production. The following tables compare the current best practice with alternatives that are still widely used.
| Material | Default option | Drawbacks | Best practice |
| Casing / tube material | Mild steel | Vulnerable to corrosion | Aluminised mild or stainless steel |
| Acoustic wadding | Basalt | Poor durability | Monofilament glass fibre |
| Manufacturing operation | Default option | Drawbacks | Best practice |
| Silencer construction | Welding | Welds initiate corrosion. Also labour intensive and variable in quality | Automated machines produce mechanical or rolled seams |
| Silencer filling | Stuff by hand | Inconsistent and labour intensive | Controlled filling by machine |
| Tube / baffle perforations | Off the shelf perforated sheet or tube | Limited choice prevents optimisation of silencing or gas flow | Perforate in-house using CNC machinery |
| Tube bending | Compression bending | Crushing or wrinkling of tube causes unnecessary back pressure | Mandrel tube benders produce near-perfect bends every time. |
