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Welcome

If you need a small quantity of precision springs in a hurry, we can make them for you in less than 24 hours. We've been doing just that for almost half a century for our customers in Costa Rica and throughout Central America.
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Who we are

The company was founded in 1955 by Cornelius Van Der Bliek, an expatriate Dutchman who worked for KLM as a fitter-mechanic during WW II in Aruba, where he was forced to learn the spring-makers art to keep the 'planes flying. He re-located to Costa Rica after the war and started making springs in a small shop in Paseo de Estudiantes in San Jose until 1970, when he moved to our present location in Zapote.

In 1975, our current owner-manager Paul Smiley, an expatriate Canadian, took over the company and has spent the last quarter century expanding, and modernizing it. Although the work-force remains small (from 2 to 5 employees), production capacity has increased exponentially, and quality is now of international scope. What was a business in a house now has 6000 sq. ft. of plant floor, a 2-year supply of high-carbon steel on hand, CAD design capability, precision forming, quality control, heat treatment and testing equipment, among other improvements.

Where we are

Our plant and offices are in Zapote, a suburb of San Jose, capital city of Costa Rica. The exact address (Costa Rican style) is " from the church in Zapote 200 meters south, 100 east, 100 south". For those unfamiliar with Costa Rican addresses, the church is of course the Catholic church, and 100 meters equals 1 block, always measured from the entrance to the church (the west side).

We can also be found in the white and yellow pages of the 'phone book http://superpaginas.co.cr/ , on the internet and printed directories of the local Chamber of Industry (www.cicr.com), or those put out by the Spring Manufacturer's Institute in the U.S.A. (www.smihq.org). For more information see the Contact Us button below.

What we do

We manufacture coil springs of extension, compression, or torsion types from high carbon steel. We have on hand in our warehouse round wire in sizes from .010"(.3mm)
up to .625"(16mm). Thus we have the capacity to make springs from the size of the ones under your computer keys up to and including your car or small truck suspension.

The vast majority of our orders are for small quantities (a dozen or less), and usually some machine is stopped somewhere for lack of one or more of those springs, so our prime requisite is speed. More than half of our orders are done in under 24 hours. Our minimum order is for $15 US, and we have a satisfaction guaranteed or money-back policy, good for 6 months.

While we usually work with either a broken or complete sample, we can also work from drawings, or we can design your spring from scratch with our CAD system. If it's for your automobile suspension, we can elevate or lower your vehicle's clearances, increase your load capacity, or make any other change from factory specs you wish, as well as simply replacing a broken spring. The same 6-month guarantee applies there, and we'll even let you ride on the springs for the full six months. If you're not happy for any reason, we'll either replace them or give you your money back.

How we do it

We only work with steel wires of the highest quality, imported directly from long-time suppliers and plants in the U.S., Germany, and Korea. We work to the highest international standards, utilizing modern forming, heat-treating, grinding, and testing equipment. We work with personnel highly trained and with tremendous experience. We will literally drop everything to comply with a customer's need for immediate service, and we stand totally behind everything we make. This has been our basic recipe for the last half century, and because of it we count the largest companies in Costa Rica among our satisfied customers, as well as tens of thousands of individuals.

Contact Us

Telephone: 2225-9968
Fax: 2225-3261 (From North America dial 011, then country code 506)

e-mail: resortes@ice.co.cr

snail mail: Apdo. 100-2010, Zapote, San Jose, Costa Rica

Owner's Names: Paul and Sonia Smiley
Shop Foreman- Melvin Marin

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Last updated, May 19, 2008
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