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Freewrite Traveler Production Updates
This is where we will be posting monthly updates on Traveler production. Follow us on our journey to bring Traveler to life!
June Update
Hey all,
It’s officially Summer! As states in the US start opening up again, we hope you all are staying safe and doing well. We’ve made good progress this month and are excited to share some pictures with you. Let’s dive right in.
Tooling Start
Last month we talked about releasing the mechanical designs for tooling. This is a huge step in the production process as it allows us to create the molds which will eventually create Traveler parts. A lot of work has been done in the past month to complete tooling to the point of testing. The biggest news - our contract manufacturer sent us the first articles from the injection molds!
We have samples of the bottom shell, the top shell, and the LED lightpipe (Traveler will have an LED battery indicator). You can see the samples below.
These are just the very first samples from the new tools and are not representative of the final colors or surface finish. The engineers in China will continue making parts as they refine the machine settings and make any necessary changes.
Name Badge Sample
The other sample we received this month was for the name badge. It’s important that Traveler’s aesthetic design is consistent with the Freewrite brand, and we’re quite pleased with how the name badge turned out.
Next Steps
With tooling being finalized, we’re about ready for the next big step in production. The factory is going to be creating 50 pre-production samples of Traveler over the next month! What this means is, we’re going to have 50 working samples of Traveler which are put together using the parts from the injection molds we’ve been testing as well as the components that we’ve been designing.
This sample run process will help the factory confirm that they are ready for mass production and determine if any manufacturing processes need to be tweaked on their side. For example, how many assembly stations need to be on the floor, what kind of instructions need to be at each station, etc.).
This is an incredibly exciting stage of the project, and we can’t wait to see Traveler come to life this month!
Timeline
We are still on track for a Fall 2020 ship date. The quality of the samples we’ve received from China is encouraging and our CM is working very closely to a production schedule.
I know you all are anxious to get your hands on Traveler. We’re doing everything we can to get it out to you as soon as possible. Keep an eye on next month’s update for your first look at the pre-production sample. If you have any questions, you can always reach us at hello@astrohaus.com.
With gratitude,
The Astrohaus Team