Long overdue UPDATE!
Well my goal of weekly updating this thing didn’t last very long… Things have been quite busy since the last entry and a lot has happened with the most exciting being the first samples showed up early fall!
These are not full production run samples, but mold QC’s to confirm the acceptance of the mold. Essentially the mold maker sends a sample to confirm the product coming out of that mold is acceptable. This is primarily a QC check of mold - make sure there’s no imperfections, components fit good, no more machining is needed and it all jives before completing the final payment and shipment of the mold - pretty much speak up now or forever hold your peace. A complimentary QC sample is included in the mold casting cost, however we opted to have a total of 5 made, I was interested in seeing if there was any variance in repeatability at this stage of the game. This was also an opportune time to tryout some different colors, it’s one thing to computer render them for visualization but, in person is just so much better and helps make solid impressions on what direction we want to end up going.
I was so pumped to be able to physically hold one in my hands and mess with it after a year and a half of drawing multiple iterations up in CAD. Even just getting photos of the first test samples from the mold manufacture before they shipped was exciting after looking at computer generated images for so long. Literally the first thing I did after unpackaging them was put a lid on the body and stand on the thing then jump up and down on it to see if it held up to that (which I’m proud to say it totally did). Thats probably the #1 question I get from folks is how strong will they be and will I be able to sit/stand on them with confidence they aren’t going to buckle. I have yet to come across storage tote that you can do that with until these samples showed up!
I was never really able to come across a good way to rapid prototype these due to the size. I could’ve 3D printed smaller versions; however, I wasn’t sure how much value that would’ve provided over the digital renderings. I couldn’t justify the costs of printing a full-size version primarily because it wouldn’t be very representative from a strength perspective of an actual rotomolded product due to the differences in material characteristics from 3D printing and rotomolding. Strength and durability are an absolute must for these to have any chance of being commercially successful, a 3D model would’ve literally been a big expensive model to look at and that just didn’t pencil out.
Strength and stiffness were one of the largest unknowns to me personally that had me pretty nervous. There’s not a lot of other products out there similar to this that I could use as go-bys. All the rotomolded coolers are double walled and foamed so way stiffer couldn’t really use them for comparison. There are a lot of single walled rotomolded containers out there, but what I ran into was that they all have significant more structural ribbing, which provide great stiffness, but I was trying to minimize/avoid the ribbing for aesthetic reasons. I ended looking at the containers I personally was using and going out on a limb with some assumptions since the majority of these are injection molded or blow molded nothing was a direct comparison, but hey something to help brainstorm is better than nothing!
Literally the day after receiving these samples, we started integrating them into our typical program and started using them right away; camping trips, cabin trips, fishing trips, and multiple hunting trips - non motorized bicycle access, boat access and plane access. I’m very happy with how they turned out from a user and designer perspective. Primary objectives have been met or exceeded with this design. As a tinkerer by nature, there’s always going to be more iterations coming down the pipeline, but I feel we totally have more than a minimal viable product with this. I really like the size and proportions, could be happier in regards to the first size we’re going to produce. There were definitely a lot of frustrating moments over the last year and a half getting to this point, but it was SO gratifying pulling the first sample out of that box. When I look next to my desk at the samples while I type this entry I can’t help but grin and get super excited for what the future holds.
At this point things are still a bit of a ways off from being ready for sales. We have some production steps that need to be addressed that we’re making head way on, for example cooling & trimming fixtures - things that couldn’t be developed until the mold shipped from the mold manufacture to the to the production facility. We’re making progress one step at a time and should be starting production in the very near term here in the good ol USA! We’ve got snow here in Alaska now so, now time to start using them for snow based activities. Thanks for making to the end, I’d love to hear any kind of feedback, feel free to hit me up via the contact page on the website or on either socials - FB or the Gram.
