LooBlade - a revolution in toilet-cleaning!

Final honing of the blade!
over 9 years ago – Tue, Aug 09, 2016 at 08:37:05 AM

Sorry guys, please forgive the radio silence. We’re now back from our travels and there’s been a lot going on. Largely with the help and effort of our partners at Sauba and Prover.

We had decided to apply our logo and wordmark to the handle and holder, and this has now been actioned on the tooling. The tools are now back to the maker getting their final finish having been tested, and are expected back this week.

This was partly out of discussions with our major commercial customers, and partly the realisation that we’d be letting our own brand down not to get it on at this stage. We also wanted to make sure we had secured trademark protection in a number of target countries before we did that. That's all now done. 

We have also been developing and have now completed an upgraded version of the holder to produce a number of key results listed below. And again this was borne out of discussions with global resellers, as well as our future product line plans along with our production partners. 

Firstly, the evolution allows the opportunity to have different bases, such as an additional wall-mount, or a rear-pan cradle, or a utility cart fixture for hotels and hospitals (as we’ve had a huge response from these markets). It also allows for different looks and materials which we’ll make available in future. Secondly, it ensures the complete eradication of any parting lines on the bowl, and a heavier and more rigid bowl. Thirdly, less deep air slots to increase the sense of enclosure whilst still allowing air circulation. Fourthly, the addition of 4 rubber feet to enhance the sense of quality and further stability. 

Here’s a shot of the test run, and logo positioning. Waiting on shots of the handle test. Colours are non-standard test materials.  

 

This has added overall about two weeks to the program and production is now planned to start week after next to allow the final finishing on the tools. The head of course is completely finished.

Thanks for your patience, as its allowing us to give you the best product possible.  

LB-day imminent!
over 9 years ago – Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 11:28:20 PM

Thanks so much to all of you for your patience, there's been lots going on but we didn't want to update until we had it fully committed and could be certain of outcomes.

We've had extraordinary support and commitment from you guys and we're sincerely grateful for that.

So, the great news is that production will begin in first week August. Bladetastic! We say to that.

Our German partners have worked uber-hard and with great professional commitment and expertise to ensure we have a product that lives up to our vision.

It has certainly taken longer than any of us imagined. Changing horses midway, and also the pioneering nature of the shapes and materials combinations complicated things, but we got there!

We'll post images as soon as we have all the parts in final colours.

Assembly, packing and dispatch will follow quickly behind production and we'll get you an update on definite dispatch dates for each region/country as soon as we can.

Head over Heels!
over 9 years ago – Mon, Jul 04, 2016 at 09:07:51 PM

As you can imagine the events of the last few days introduced a number of detailed variables that we have been working through. We are extremely positive and confident about the outcomes, particularly given the superb support and commitment of our partners at Sauba and Prover. We’d also like to thank the huge number of backers for their direct kind words and support.

We will give you the full update as soon as we can. For now here’s the latest test run of the head, made on Friday, this time including the hydrophobic and antimicrobial additives, and with a final materials specification. We’re are delighted with it and are formally signing off on it. Is it weird to love a toilet brush!

A European product
almost 10 years ago – Sat, Jun 25, 2016 at 12:08:23 AM

Today is a day we feel proud to be Scottish. To be the country, alongside Northern Ireland, which voted overwhelmingly to remain in the European Union. London, our capital, also did so, sadly most of England did not. Though almost half did not wish to leave. It's a decision we personally feel is the wrong one and regrettable. It seems to us contrary to the movement of modern history and the ever growing collaboration between nations and peoples, of which Kickstarter is a good microcosmic example.

We'd like however to reassure all backers that LooBlade is entirely safe as the pan-European project it has become. We have wonderful partnerships with our European colleagues in Germany to which we have committed for the long term. The product continues to attract ever more global interest in countries far beyond Europe, and we will be delighted to be supplying directly from Germany to meet that demand.

In Scotland we have always felt very much part of Europe. That's our history over a thousand years, where Scots have traded directly in great friendship with the Hanseatic League, France, the Low-Countries and the Baltic for centuries before the UK itself came into being. The Hanseatic League, which was begun by German mercantile city-states, is a good early example of the strengths of a formal trade and political alliance, and brought great wealth and development to Northern Europe from the 14th century to the beginnings of the modern era. I think we still feel those ties strongly. And business will go on as usual!

We will bring you a full production and shipping update in the next week. For now we feel proud to declare LooBlade a European product, and thank all backers, and our European backers in particular, for their wonderful support and pan-European outlook.

Success!
almost 10 years ago – Fri, Jun 17, 2016 at 02:42:58 PM

There has been a lot of hard work, process tweaking, re-runs, and some brilliant ideas from the teams at Prover and Sauba. Some of the early results were a bit wonky so we didn’t want to share them until we knew we could successfully pull our true product off the tool. It took expertise, experience and a little magic from Marwan who heads up Prover, and who’s actually a mathematician by background...never stuck for a solution!

We are delighted to announce we have a working and viable head tool in which we are now completely confident , and a volume-repeatable process to manufacture product off the tool! 

Rejoicing all round in Scotland and Germany! 

LooBlade is certainly a complex and innovative shape, and deep helixes are very unusual in injection moulding. Here in the video below however is the end result and it’s Marwan doing the robots job in this case at the final stage of demolding. 

Now that we have the full confidence on this, which is the mission critical piece of the jigsaw, we can start to plan things in much more confident detail. We will update next week on this. Thank you all again for your encouragement, support and patience. 

We really can say we are on the home straight this time...!