I have an old film developing reel made of 316 stainless steel. This
reel is no longer in production. I would like to know how to go about
having this reel (reproduced) manufactured. I don't know anything
about prototyping or getting something manufactured on order. I am
interested in ordering a base quantity of 1000 pieces. Could you
please provide me with concrete information on how I would accomplish
this task. Please be very thorough in your response and explain the
various stages step-by-step. I understand that I would probably have
to start by reverse-engineering the existing product. Please explain
how this is done, what type of skill is required, and what the
end-product of this step would be (eg. technical drawing/cad, etc).
Then, what should I do next? How would I best go about selecting a
manufacturer, what should I ask/expect from them. I'm happy to
elaborate on my quesiton as required, so please feel free to ask
quesitons.

hi ,

please give detail photo of stainless steel product you would like to
develop. And dimensions also.

I am from Mumbai India. 

Thankyou,

Dev

You can likely buy/rent the plans from the manufacturer or whats left
of the manufacturer.  Don't reverse engineer if you don't need to. 
They might still have tooling or the retired workers address.

Get a manufacturer who specializes in wire products, not stainless steel.  

Wonder if patents have expired?

Actually, this was at one point manufactured by Nikon. I doubt they'd
be interested or even reachable to "rent" or "lease" plans. These boys
don't need my chump changed. As for retired workers/engineers, that's
not much of an option either I'm afraid. These were all made in Japan.

Patents are hardly a concern. It has probably been well over 30-years
since this article was mainstream. Why exactly would I target a "wire
manufacturer" ?