Where we are at!
Hi Guys and Girls,
Ok, so we are still fighting an uphill battle at the moment due to Covid-19. Supply chains are proving to be our biggest nemesis. I am going to get to the nuts and bolts now as I need to communicate to you that we haven't just been sitting here on our asses twiddling our thumbs, but have instead been in contact with our manufacturer daily strategizing just how we solve these problems we keep running into rather than just hoping that supply chains will be resolved anytime soon.
Here are the nuts and bolts:
We have had to change course in regards to our manufacturing processes as we found after months of trying that it is next to impossible to source unhardened grade 7075-0 aluminum sheet metal at the moment due to production slow downs around the world. In normal times and circumstances this would not usually be a problem to source, but as you all know, these are not normal times. This means that we are having to use 7075-T6 aluminum sheet which is extremely difficult to form. (The T6 is the annealing process that the material goes through to give its strength and make it desirable to use in products such as these) So we are having to begin by softening the raw material making it possible for us to form. Even then it is not perfect and we have had to adapt our tooling. This means that we have had to make extra sets of tooling, so instead of a 2 step process in regards to forming and stamping we now have a 4 step process we have developed. It involves using 1 stamping tool and 3 forming tools. So the forming is staggered over 3 tools instead of 1. This has taken a lot of trial an error as this is not the usual way you would do things. After we have stamped and formed the utensil we are having to heat treat (reharden) the material back to it's previous properties of 7075-T6 ready to be polished, sandblasted and then anodized. After these processes have been done it will then be put into another set of tools to have the magnets over-molded into place using injection moulding. We are now in the process of fine tuning the new tooling for the mass production run.
So long story short, yes more delays because of Covid-19, but we are determined to not let these faze us and to just adapt however we need to get your Magware made and out to you as soon as we possibly can! All I can do is apologize for the delays and again promise you that you will 100% receive your Magware.
Anywho, have yourselves a great weekend and please keep up your spirits in these trying times!
Cheers
Mark