LooBlade - a revolution in toilet-cleaning!

EDM process of tooling is complete!
about 10 years ago – Thu, Jan 07, 2016 at 11:47:24 AM

A very Happy New Year to all our backers!

We've now finished the tool forming process for the head and we've run our T0 test samples off the tool. Exciting times!

It's looking great overall and would work(!), but the split line detailing is not yet up to final requirement so we are going to further engineer the surfacing and parting lines of the tool to acheive the standards we are setting. We're as obsessive about quality as we are about functionality.

Bear with us...it's gonna be worth it!

Almost there...!
over 10 years ago – Thu, Dec 31, 2015 at 05:45:51 PM

We're pleased to say that the handles are looking great in a second run off the tool. Just a little further tweaking needed to meet our quality aims. We should be ready to go next week!

The EDM process for the blade tooling is virtually complete and we should be able to run a sample blade on Monday/Tuesday next week.  

We'll keep you closely advised as to production and dispatch which will follow quickly thereafter. Thanks again for your patience, and wishing you the very best for a great New Year!

Festive salutations!
over 10 years ago – Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 09:22:54 PM

A warm and hearty wish of joy to all our backers for the holiday season, and the sincerest of thanks for your kind support in bringing LooBlade into being with the power of the crowd!

We cannot wait to get them to you, and we're hopefully not too far away from that now. 

May you have a very happy and prosperous coming New Year!

We'll be keeping you posted all the way!!

Getting a handle on tooling...
over 10 years ago – Tue, Dec 22, 2015 at 10:51:53 PM

A quick pre-holiday update to all backers. 

The first handle runs are coming off the tool, and looking good! We call these T0. With a little tweaking, we'll likely only need to go to T1 to get the quality we are after, then production runs can begin!!

The black test colour of the grips is used to gain best contrast to pick up details.

We'll be working through to keep the process motoring, but may I take the opportunity on behalf of the LooBlade team, to wish all our valued and wonderful backers a very Happy Festive Season and the best for the coming New Year!

Garry, Maggie, Ryder and Danny

Tooling progress report & Gift Cards
over 10 years ago – Wed, Dec 16, 2015 at 08:09:00 PM

We are experiencing slower completion on tooling than we had planned. We are 90% there.

(For the non-technically minded this next section can be skipped!) 

As mentioned before, the tool making method for the complex shape of the blade head is an EDM process. This involves using a high-tension electrical discharge to erode the hardened steel using formed graphite electrodes. 

This enables narrow-form cavity shapes that would be impossible to CNC machine from solid metal blanks. The primary electrode (lower sample above) is sunk twice through each tool layer at 45˚rotation to its first entry point. 

We have found that this two-pass electrode requires rework after the first-phase multi-pass, all of which which has added unpredicted time to the process.  

You can see in the video (bottom of page) how the process, specific to LooBlade, requires not only a slow vertical increment of electrode progress but also a rotational increment; all the while maintaining consistency and quality. It is fully computerised but it relies on gradual physical processes, almost like wearing away the metal.  

The design shape is so pioneering that it has literally never been done before to a form like this. We're breaking ground here!

Prototyping was relatively easy using flexible cured-silicone moulds from which we could extract the castings readily. 

We want to assure you that it is progressing very well and will produce an extremely successful outcome, but it's slower than predicted and quality is uppermost in our aims!

We therefore hope to begin production within December, but won't be able to ship out for the beginning of the holiday period as we'd expected.  We're extremely sorry to not to have achieved this. We'd pulled out all the stops, even investing in tooling down-payments before we received KS funds to expedite things. 

To help those of you who had intended the LooBlade as a gift, we've created printable cards in a range of major languages (including Australian!), and a blank version. (Forgive us if your native-tongue is not represented)  

Follow the hyperlink on the first image below to a Dropbox folder with them all : 

Thanks so much for your patience and tremendous support!

We will keep you closely advised. (We don't holiday whilst working to get LooBlade to you).

As a quick aside, the great production partner I'm working with at Zetar Molding, Tina Tang, fell and injured herself three days ago and she's almost term on her first pregnancy (baby is A-okay!). Give her some support and love at [email protected]

N.B. Almost 10% of surveys still remain to be completed by backers and so we wouldn't be able to action fulfilment yet discounting the above program slippage. We'd be very grateful if any backers who haven't as yet completed would action as soon as possible.

View Video