4 ms·
I would be remiss to not point out the obvious mechanical design challenges here. There are over a dozen injection molded parts that need tooling and shots set
by phasetransition 9y ago
I would be remiss to not point out the obvious mechanical design challenges here. There are over a dozen injection molded parts that need tooling and shots set up. The NRE for this project could end up extremely substantial.
- mhb 9y agoYes. How is $48K even in the right ballpark?
- gregmac 9y agoYeah that bit actually gives me pause. Injection molds cost thousands each. If there's a design flaw and some of the molds have to be redone, is there still money to do that? The project is nearly double its Kickstarter goal as I write this so maybe that is accounted for now, but I would have guessed the goal should have been 2 to 4 times higher.
- phasetransition 9y agoYou could do a dozen small parts at Protolabs for $50k, and that would get you through a small run of finished parts. But Protomold's tooling is proprietary and non-transferable. You don't own it, or get to see it. You would have to start fresh (with different design rules) to do a large scale production run. Which means a project like this could end up a victim of its own success.
- chrisallenlane 9y agoYou're probably right. It looks like this project might raise well above the $48k, though. (It's at $108k as of now.) I recognize that this can be both a blessing and a curse when it comes to Kickstarters. With regards to NRE, though - hopefully it's straightforwardly a good thing.