The Final Phase
over 9 years ago – Mon, Sep 29, 2014 at 08:26:51 AM

Hi Backers,

We’ve been very hard at work, with many a late night and weekend work, pushing forward with the final design, and weeks worth of intense engineering, tests, samples and more. We are so excited with our progress and feel that the multitude of little revisions and design / engineering decisions we’ve made will make Flekt perform better, be sturdier, and look even nicer on top of your camera.

At this point, we are on schedule. We have several big milestones coming up, such as getting a look at our molds and determining if any “debugging” will be needed, testing the first Flekts out of manufacturing and getting our final manufactured prime reflectors coated. We hope that no major issues will arise, and feel that our detailed work over the past few months will pay off.

We are getting close to our BackerKit lockdown date, when shipping addresses need to be set and we will no longer be accepting additional orders (such as upgrading your order to include a silver or gold reflector, or buying an additional Flekt System or ten for your friends, family and co-workers). Most backers have already entered their information, but not all have. Please log in and double check your shipping address and check out the add-ons. If you have any questions about BackerKit or your order, please send us a private message.

Engineering

In our efforts to bring the best quality Flekt to our backers, we’ve been hard at work perfecting our engineering to make sure our users will have the best experience. We want to make sure that each Flekt will have a long life and will be a product we are proud of. This has taken a little longer than we would have liked, but I think all would agree that rushing something to put out crap is not a good idea. I personally did not know that we needed to do an engineering phase after Industrial Design. It is a learning process that has taken time, but will ultimately produce a better product. Eric Paul Rose, our product design specialist, and his engineer, John, have been critical in fine tuning Flekt to go into molding.

Sourcing

It is one thing to produce a prototype and know that your product works. It is another thing to find a company that can mask thousands of products and coat reflectors for a consumer product. This search has been exhausting but we have reached our goal.

Lambertian White

Our white reflector is very important. It needs to have high reflectivity (my standard was over 95%!) and yet be perfectly lambertian (photon explosion!). We have decided on an optics company here in the U.S. to provide this service for us. They have a process and coating that exceeds my highest expectations and we are super excited to bring this to you!

Silver & Gold Metalizing

This has been very difficult to source as well, particularly the gold. I have a high standard for the gold we are using and it needs to be gorgeous and beautiful on your subject. We have three good candidates at this point and are deciding on price and ability to apply the reflective microspheres. Before we need to manufacture, we will lock one in and integrate with our schedule.

Manufacturing

This has been a difficult search and one that we consider to be the most important.  We need to find not just a company to mold Flekt but a partner to be able to supply quality parts and do proper assembly so that we can get our products to our customers in a timely manner. Cost is also a factor, as molds are incredibly expensive and take a long time to create. We also could not get proper quotes from any manufacturer until we were finished with engineering.

We are proud to announce that we have chosen an amazing facility in Michigan called Xcentric. Not only do they produce high quality molds, but they can get parts to us in just over two weeks!! Xcentric now has our finished engineered CAD files and we want to start mold making by September 1st.

We are so excited for all that is coming up, and we are so happy that you are on the ride with us!

Preston

Meet The Newest Member Of Our Team
almost 10 years ago – Fri, Jul 18, 2014 at 10:27:37 AM

Hi Backers,

What an exciting time it is for us here at Flekt!  We are deep into the hard work necessary to get Flekt into your hands and we are very happy with our progress so far.

To catch everyone up, we launched our BackerKit site and already the vast majority of you, our amazing backers, have already taken a look, answered the quick survey question, added / checked your shipping address and a large number of you have added on an additional gold or silver reflector or even another full Flekt System or two as a gift or for a second camera.  If you haven’t visited BackerKit yet, please take a look soon.  You can always go back and change your shipping address or add more items to your order, until we have to lock down the final orders.

The big excitement at Flekt is the newest member of our team.  We have partnered with product innovation consultant Eric P. Rose, NPDP, MBA to ensure the development of our beloved product from prototype into tooling, manufacturing, and production launch.

Eric will bring his expertise, supplier connections, and technical associates to our team.  He has more than 30 years of experience in product innovation, product development, commercialization, and project management.  His background includes five years at Mattel toys and many years of sourcing hundreds of molds for plastics manufacturing.  Eric is currently an Adjunct Professor of Product Innovation in Pepperdine University’s MBA program, and he serves as President Emeritus and Co-Founder of the Product Development and Management Association, Los Angeles Chapter (PDMA-LA).  He also previously served as Chairman of the Society of Plastics Engineers in Los Angeles.

Needless to say, we are so excited for the wisdom, guidance and vision that Eric has already provided for us. We have a good timeline developed, and we are working closely as a team with Eric and his engineers to tweak the final design of the various pieces of the Flekt System.

One good example is the rear shell of the prime reflector.  We are working on combining what is now two separate elements into one more easily moldable piece.  This will make the rear shell stronger and cut down on manufacturing time, while preserving our design aesthetic.   A win-win!

We are deep into discussions, CAD drawings, further sketches and final tweaks on some of the other pieces, such as the latch mechanism of the magAttach, the up/down and in/out function of the Ignitor Reflector, and the magnetic ball that holds the prime reflector.  As we get even further into these parts and make some final decisions, we will give you some more detailed updates, so you can follow along with our progress.

Until then, please let us know if you have any questions!

Thanks!

Preston

Flekt is on BackerKit (Shipping + Add-on's)
almost 10 years ago – Sun, Jun 01, 2014 at 08:24:45 AM

Hi Backers,

We’ve been hard at work with our manufacturing and coatings partners so we can get Flekt into your hands and onto your cameras! We are excited by our progress and will be sure to keep you updated.

We’ve had a number of emails about shipping address updates, and others asking about getting a second or third Flekt System to give as a gift for a family member, a friend and a few work colleagues. We’ve also had a number of people ask about adding on our amazing silver or gold inserts.

We’ve heard your requests, and we are proud to announce that we have set Flekt up on BackerKit for any shipping changes / purchasing options you may have! Order an extra reflector or purchase a whole new Flekt or just upgrade your order. We are excited to have this up and running!

Backerkit will also allow for streamlined fulfillment and will give you as a backer more options to customize the experience you want from your Flekt purchase.

On Monday, you will receive a special email link from BackerKit. We ask that you fill out the very short survey, after which you can:

1.  Double check / change your shipping address

2.  Pay for international shipping if you forgot on Kickstarter

3.  Add on a silver or gold insert, or get an additional Flekt System or ten for your whole company

We ask that you take the couple minutes to go to BackerKit right away on Monday as it will help us greatly.  You will be able to go back and make changes until we have to give our exact order to our manufacturers.

Please let us know if you have any questions!

Thanks!

Preston