Injection Molding Progress
Dear Reader,
Our injection molding subcontractor has finished the molds for the Mooshimeter enclosures and has shot the first samples. The mold is steel and should be good for many thousands of shots, which is good because we plan on continuing to sell Mooshimeters after we’ve fulfilled the crowdfunding pre-orders (tell your friends!).
They produced the first enclosure samples earlier this week, and they came out even better than we expected. The surface finish is almost lens-clear.
The enclosures still need their ink/silkscreening, which carries safety and regulatory information. The markings must be designed in cooperation with the safety lab. We got approval for our markings this week as well, and they will look like this:
More soon, thanks for reading!
Damn, those look impressive!
Hi James,
Awesome news !
Thanks a ton to keep us updated on your progress !
2 small and stupid questions:
– What will the case color be ? (i guess transparent is only for mold verification purposes ?
– Will the markings that link together the plugs have same kind of high insulation as the plastic ?
The cases will be the same (lack of) color as the mold samples above.
The markings are silkscreened onto the enclosure. They do not provide a conductive path.
Clear?! I think that’s awesome :)
Why does the front say 10 A fused, and the back say 12 A?
The rating for that circuit is 10A RMS. We use a 12A fuse to reduce the risk of nuisance blows – this allows you to run 10A RMS continuous through without the fuse popping.
Good work ….. I waiting. ….
Is this material scratch resistant? New one is looking awesome, but how it will look after some time of use? :) I mean, on white non-transparent material scratches should be less visible.
And how brittle is this material? What will happen if I drop it from about 1.5 meters to a tiled floor? ABS is quite tough, but not sure about polycarbonate.
And thanks for being so open – learned a lot from your experience.
There is a drop test in 61010-1 under 8.3.2. This test is a 1 meter drop onto hardwood, oriented “so that it lands in the position expected to present the most severe condition”. So, you’ll be able to take a look at the 100+ page test report in a few weeks and see for yourself that we passed that one. You might also be interested in the 8.2.1 Static test (stabbed with 30N through a 12mm diameter hard rod) and 8.2.2 Impact Test (hit with a 500 gram “wrecking ball”)!
As for scratching – We have three options if this becomes a problem
1) We can “bead blast” the mold. This makes the mold surface rough, and this can help hide scratches and nicks.
2) We can change color to something more forgiving.
3) We can add a scratch resistant coating.
I’m not a big fan of #3 – these aren’t glasses! The aesthetics don’t have a functional purpose beyond ensuring that the safety warnings are legible.
Personally, I really like being able to see the isolation fins, the stiffening ribs, and the ejector pin marks… but no one has ever accused me of being fashionable.
Wow! You taking it even more serious than I thought!
Thank you for that.
This project has been a great journey so far for everyone it seems – for both the backers and the design team. I bet any future employers will be salivating over each of your team’s CV/Resume.
Glad to see it coming to fruition. Can’t wait for mine to arrive.