As the subject is to be focused on Styli, Cantilevers and Original, the proposal that a Styli and Cantilever assembly is a product from a limited number of Companies that are considered being a Supplier of the parts for a Manufacturers Supply Chain in the procurement of the overall items to be assembled, does seem to have a relevance in todays Manufacture for a Cartridge, even though it is known there are Cartridge Manufacture Companies and 'Retip' Services that as apart of a present Production or Refurbishment Service, offer a Bespoke Styli >Cantilever assembly that is not an assembly produced by the limited number of Companies that are being referred to.
For the Original Element, the further back in time one will go to review the variations across the Cartridge Models that were offered in a Market Place, where a much larger range of options were to be encountered.
There will be many descriptions supplied by the Manufacturer that will suggest that there is a Bespoke Part to be found in a particular Cartridge, and a part that was most likely produced by a specialist with access to the materials selected or even a in house assembly of the selected parts.
Then there is the other consideration where a design is evolving and Parts are being included and deselected , either on paper or after thorough assessment through demonstrations and testing.
Parts used at the design stages and deselected, would still warrant a status of a Original Part, but not the part selected for the model to be the, 'Piggy, that went to market'.
Is it not possible that when a challenge is made by a owner of a quite old model of Cartridge, where there is a rejection of the idea of using a Third Party 'retip' Service,
The challenge is due to the idea the 'retip' Service is going to use parts that are not related to the Cartridge Parts used in the era of production, and the most likely place to acquire these parts is with the original manufacturer, or at the least get a sympathetic service supplied from the Manufacturer that is considering the Cartridges age and uniqueness due to the Vintage.
From experience of taking the time to read the terms of the Service offered by a Manufacturer for their refurbishment service, bear in mind I have not read all Manufacturer's terms, I will say once more the used word 'equivalent' is the get out of jail card.
There is not going to be a Cartridge produced that is a match in parts used to the model being refurbished, there is going to be parts used for the refurbishment, that are assessed, hopefully by an adept technician to be an 'equivalent' part. There will be a function parity only. In a 'Nutshell' one more Bespoke Refurbishment is produced of a Cartridge.
This Bespoke Refurbishment from a Manufacturer or from a 'retip' Service if both carried out by adept technicians will most likely have very closely match similarities as the modern supply chains are ubiquitous in their presence and do not seem to be an exclusive entity, hence the offered parts end up being available to numerous parties.
@nandric good to see you back, with your learned descriptions and following mind boggle to boot.