Maybe you could make it where you have to sacrifice (invest) the one you get to unlock the recipe?
A few ways you could do this is to have it as a standard system readily available at the first time you obtain a "researchable equipment", or you could open it up as endgame content, where you get "Experitech" (name pending) to unlock the blueprints and possibly upgrade the blueprint item's effect itself, similar how Microtransactions applies to rigs.