Mon Mar 8 '21 Announcement
about 5 years ago – Mon, Mar 08, 2021 at 02:50:23 PM

Hello everyone, here is what’s been happening for the past couple of weeks:

Tests and next steps...

We are moving along and making progress with the testing process. The mechanism parts have been performing with zero issues even after super extended periods of use. So we can confidently say SANDSARA’s mechanism is a complete success.

We have also continued to test the wood samples we have under different humidity and temperature conditions, and we expect to receive the final testing reports next week. These final tests will give us the information we need to resume production for SANDSARA’s case, which is the only part remaining to complete production.

Moving towards production prototyping

Our suppliers have returned to their facilities after the Chinese New Year festivities and we are now getting everything ready to start the production prototyping phase as soon as we get the tests results. After deciding which alternative is the best one, we’ll be fully working on this step. The key in this phase is to fabricate a small batch of samples using the final manufacturing processes and if needed, we’ll make the necessary design adjustments to ensure mass replicable results. This will be the final step before ramping up to full production. We are getting closer and closer to the goal each day, and we can’t wait to finally get these parts ready so we can start assembling full SANDSARAS. You guys have been incredibly supportive and patient and everything is about to pay off! :)

Be aware of scammers

On a completely separate note, many of you have been reaching out to the team about a couple of scam websites that have copied our campaign content and are supposedly selling SANDSARA. We are aware of at least eight scam sites and we have consulted with legal professionals to take action against them.

Despite our efforts, these sites keep popping up, so please if you come to see one please let us know and if you are kind to do so, also report their Facebook or Instagram ads. SANDSARA is only available for pre-order in Indiegogo and our Backerkit store. The fulfillment of pledges will be according to the order they were received.

Thanks again to all of you who have been helping report the scam ads and sharing the links with us, we appreciate it a lot.

We’ll be back soon to let you know about the wood results and production prototyping progress. See you then!

Best,

The Sandsara Team

Mon Feb 22 '21 Announcement
about 5 years ago – Mon, Feb 22, 2021 at 10:22:56 AM

Hey everyone,

As we told you last time, all SANDSARA’s mechanism parts are fully produced and going through quality check, which has been moving along smoothly. We finally received some of these parts in our workshop last week and we have to say we are thrilled with the final results! Our suppliers have done an outstanding job with the production of all the parts and we are totally satisfied with the precision and quality achieved. 

We recieved the metal pieces with a thin film that protects them from scratching, this film is removed once the pieces are assembled.

Our team has been doing in-house assemblies to verify the interaction between the multiple pieces and to do performance testing. It was important for us to do quality checks ourselves and some extra examinations in addition to the quality control inspection that is being done at the factory. The mechanisms are performing wonderfully, it’s really a delight to see them working :)

These are actual production pieces, exactly like what you guys will receive. This is a great milestone in the project that we wanted to share with all of you.

Now that everything's coming together, we’ve continued to assemble prototypes with the final production parts of the mechanism and the solid wood ring samples we have been testing. The mechanism and the solid wood ring samples have a nice fit and we haven't encountered any major issues, which makes us very very happy! Here are some images of how everything looks together:

All the possible solutions we’ve mentioned in previous updates are on extensive testing right now, Sandsaras are running day and night, and we’ve been busy testing every detail, making tweaks and evaluating the durability and performance of each of our prototypes. We will continue doing this for the next couple of weeks; including humidity, fatigue, and temperature testing to detect any contingency that may develop under different use conditions.

We are getting close to finishing this phase! The next step will be to resume production prototyping as soon as our suppliers come back from the Chinese New Year break.

About the redesign we proposed in our previous update, first, we want to thank you all for sharing your thoughts and being so supportive of such a different proposal! Since our tests with the solid wood rings and the composite construction rings have been going so well, we consider it won't be necessary to do a drastic redesign, but we were glad to see most of you really liked it! We decided to prioritize the options that allow us to keep SANDSARA’s original design and we think that’s the best way to go.

Thank you all and have a great weekend. See you in two weeks.

The Sandsara Team

Tue Feb 9 '21 Announcement
about 5 years ago – Tue, Feb 09, 2021 at 03:14:47 PM

Hi everyone! We have some great news to share.

Production of all Sandsara's mechanism parts is complete! This means every part of the Sandsara assembly except for the wood case is now finished. All the pieces are currently going through a rigorous quality check process to ensure everything is perfect, and some of the pieces are on their way to us so we can do a final inspection and review every last detail ourselves. Here are some pictures :)

This is the Main Arm made of stainless steel. One of the most complicated pieces to manufacture from Sandsara's mechanism.

Remember the picture of the mold we shared on update #16 ? These are the pieces made with that same mold!

All our screws, magnets and washers are ready!

How’s the wood going?

We’ve continued to work hard on prototypes and new ideas to solve the wood ring situation. As we mentioned in our last update, we’ve been working with a supplier who has managed to produce more stable solid wood samples and they are still doing great without presenting any issues. We finally received some of these samples a few days ago and we will continue to test them in-house to ensure they meet the expected quality. We’ll report back on how this moves along.

These samples are making us very excited and hopeful because we think that in addition, we could integrate a solution that decouples the sand bed and the wood ring to allow for some expansion/contraction of the wood. We’ve received many suggestions from you guys to do this and we’ve made some good progress on that idea.

The biggest issue we have to solve is that we need to prevent sand from leaking into the case, and the best way we've found so far is to add a flexible ring that is a little recessed inside the wood, this allows for greater compression of the ring and creates a "pocket" that makes it impossible for sand to get through. In this case the sand bed and the wood are barely touching, and this allows for some movement in the wood without distorting the sandbed. Here is an image on how this looks like:

If we are able to get a more stable wood as it’s looking to be the case, plus this solution, we think we’d be in great shape!

An alternative solution path….

In an effort to keep Sandsara’s ring a fully solid wood piece, we’ve been considering other designs that reduce production risks.

Until we can confirm our original design and assembly method can be manufactured without issues, we continue to test alternative manufacturing methods like the composite version we previously talked about. In addition to that idea, we’ve been exploring a more manufacture-friendly design that would allow us to keep it solid wood, which some of you consider to be very important.

Our suppliers have suggested a number of specific things that would go a long way into making sure a solid wood ring is more stable, robust, and easier to work with. Specifically making the ring shorter and thicker. We did some explorations based on the recommended dimensions and even though this would require some changes and a bit more time to make it work, we wanted to share it with you anyway so you get a glimpse on the whole process.

We’d love to know your thoughts on this to see if this is worth exploring further.

As we have mentioned, we are trying as many things as we can to keep our options open and avoid reaching a dead-end with one specific idea. This is what developing a product looks like and we want to keep you guys involved, but none of these options are the final solution since we have not reached that point yet. Now is the time to experiment, test and also hear your feedback which helps us guide our efforts to find the best solution. So please be sure to keep it coming!

What happens during Chinese New Year?

Chinese New Year will last all through February, and during this time our team will continue working on developing and testing all the solutions we have been sharing with you. We should be ready with one or two final contenders by March to begin production prototyping and ramp up from there to meet our timeline.

Thank you all and have a great weekend. See you soon!

The Sandsara Team

Tue Jan 26 '21 Announcement
about 5 years ago – Tue, Jan 26, 2021 at 10:45:04 AM

Hi everyone! We are back with some more news on SANDSARA’s progress :)

For the past two weeks we have been making many tests with the wood and different materials and assemblies, some of your suggestions have been super helpful and we really appreciate that, so please keep them coming! We have also been working with our suppliers to improve the stability of the wood rings and test different construction methods, and we’ve made great progress.

One of our suppliers completed some samples made with solid wood that look perfect and had zero assembly issues. No plate deformation, no mismatch! This is very promising, however, we don’t want to put all our hopes on it because now we know this doesn’t ensure that the full production units will behave exactly the same. We are waiting to receive the samples and we will need to make a lot of tests to see if this path can be a viable solution. But for now we are excited! Here is a video of how they look:

We have been looking at other high-end products that are made of wood and like SANDSARA, require a lot of precision. Some of you guys suggested looking into musical instruments and we have been checking out different manufacturing processes for these kinds of products. Based on that investigation, we worked with our suppliers to make a sample of SANDSARA with a different method based on a reinforced, solid wood construction with a natural wood edge banding to cover the reinforcement material and match the solid wood finish. We’ve learned that this is not uncommon at all on products like SANDSARA that have a classical wooden aesthetic and the highest quality and precision requirements.

We received the samples and we have been testing them for the past few days. So far, we are liking the results. This composite construction ensures a robust and consistent mechanical performance while maintaining most of the structure solid wood for quality and looks. The samples look just as nice as our previous prototypes but are more stable and won’t put the reliability of production at risk.

Fri Jan 8 '21 Announcement
about 5 years ago – Fri, Jan 08, 2021 at 03:42:24 PM

Hello everyone, 

We hope you are all having a great start to the year. On our last update we talked about some issues with the wood part of SANDSARA that are pushing our delivery timeline. Today we want to clarify some of your questions and explain what we are doing to solve this.

First. The issue. 

The only issue we have is with one part. Everything else is already in production and moving along without any setbacks. However, in order for SANDSARA to work flawlessly, this issue needs to be fixed and that is why we had to stop production of the wood parts. Some of you guys asked how can the wood case be related to the internal mechanism, so here is a video where Cesar explains in detail what is going on with the wood and how this can affect other parts if it's not addressed:

This animation shows how even slight changes in the diameter of the wood ring cause the sand bed to deform significantly.

Now. The solution

There are many options to solve this. We just need to find the best one that does not compromise SANDSARA’s quality and doesn't take too long to implement. Here is another video where Cesar explains the options we are testing right now:

But why will it take so long?

The reason why the delivery timeline is being pushed so much is not because we have an unsolvable problem. It is because everything was supposed to be produced at the same time, and one single piece takes as much time to be made as the rest. If we had continued making the wood parts as they were, everything would have been ready at the same time, but then we would have had issues during assembly and with the quality of the final product. 

That is not a risk we are going to take and we are sure you are not expecting us to do that. Quality is the number one priority here. 

And that is exactly why we started with a small batch and although we wish everything had worked perfectly, we are glad we were able to identify it before it was too late. Now quality will not be compromised.

You can rest assured we are building a GREAT product. We want you guys to know that SANDSARA is not a little side project for us. It is our life. It is our business, and there is nothing more important to us than delivering right, and as soon as possible. That is the only path to be able to continue growing and creating products. We have so many plans for the future and we know they will only be possible if we meet our commitment to you and complete the SANDSARA project successfully.

Thank you. We’ll be back with more news soon.

- THE SANDSARA TEAM