Grow It - Rapid Prototyping & Manufacturing

3D Printing and Kickstarter Series :: LUNATIK 

By: Alicia Frye

GROWit prints magical, masterful, pure-awesomeful things every day. In this particular blog series, we highlight some of our Kickstarter customers: the leading innovators of consumer products. Today’s highlighted success? LUNATIK.

LUNATIK

MINIMAL design is a true star in successful vision-to-launch with LUNATIK products. LUNATIK’s disruptive nature and transformational design to impact everyday life look to be just too irresistible for crowdfunding cruisers to pass up. One might even say their award-winning founder Scott Wilson is Jeopardy!’s Ken Jennings of the Kickstarter world with his 3 for 3 record [LUNATIK TAKTIK :: LUNATIK Touch Pen :: TikTok+LunaTik]. TAKTIK came out with a not-too-shabby $680,568 raised in 30 days, funded by over 450% of their goal.

TAKTIK :: Premium Protection System for the iPhone

TAKTIK is one revolutionary iPhone case that made its way on Kickstarter and, in my humble iPhone-using opinion, is truly the case of all cases. It’s resilient structure and functional design was no mistake.

“By obsessing over all the details that others neglect like fit, finish, feel, display integrity, robustness and aesthetics, we are raising the bar again,” shares LUNATIK creator Scott Wilson.

The TAKTIK brings its hardcore game in all of its rugged glory and looks good doing it. From water to concrete, baby can practically withstand any encounter (not that it’s actually encouraged for one to seek out such encounters…). This case can more than handle the beatings that are inevitable for iPhone users.

TAKTIK has some stunning features:

• Shockproof Suspension System 9mm Impact Truss + Ballastik Bezel
• Upgradable High Sensitivity Gorilla Glass Lens Protection
• Acoustic water + dust resistant mic/speaker covers
• Photo/Flash friendly camera opening
• 3.5 HSJ cover made from anodized aircraft grade aluminum
• 30-pin plug allows quick access for charging
• Silence switch
• iPhone antenna friendly metal case
• Tested using military specification standards
• Available starting at $99.95

TAKTIK for iPhone4/4s is currently available at LUNATIK (https://www.lunatik.com/products/taktik) and TAKTIK for iPhone 5 will be available for pre-order in January.  LUNATIK will also unveil a larger series of protective cases in the new year.

GROWit

LUNATIK was able to use GROWit’s 3D printing technology facility to take TAKTIK from the computer screen to the physical hand. Material simulations, form-to-fit testing, and product representation in early development stages are staples in rapid prototyping and product development.

Iterations of products like this give designers a physical product to use and represent on platforms like Kickstarter. For a small amount of money and time, designers save across the board when using a service bureau for creating new consumer products.

Be sure and check all of LUNATIK Kickstarter success products, which all underwent 3D printing R&D-to-production process under the GROWit HQ roof:

LUNATIK TAKTIK :: LUNATIK Touch Pen :: TikTok+LunaTik

Can’t wait to see what’s to come in future LUNATIK Kickstarter campaigns.

Process: LS [Laser Sintering]

Material: Glass Sphere Nylon

Purpose: Because we can.

Do you have a revolutionary design that you’re ready to bring to life? GROWit’s state-of-the-art process can help make it happen. Visit the GROWit Upload Center for a free quote! Don’t have your idea completely fleshed out? GROWit can take any napkin sketch design and make it an actual product.

You dream it. We GROWit.

By: Brad S. – Project Manager

If you are anything like me you were left with a little frustration last week not knowing how the project turned out. Well, read on and decide for yourself…

Recap: Our customer had the front end of a go-kart continually break, requiring other owners of the go-kart like himself to purchase an entire new front end. Our customer wanted to fix that problem and produce a solution that was more reliable than the O.E.M product.  We 3D scanned the front end to design a fix to their problem. That was the easy part. Next, we taxed ourselves with the challenge of improving the O.E.M. design. With a little CAD magic from our team we came up with two new designs (in addition to minor modifications of the original concept).

The Result: We created fenders with incorporated headlights (left below) and a F1 styled front end (right below). Our customer does not need to sell entirely different front-ends either because the style options are easily interchangeable depending on personal preference and just require unbolting the end pieces!

What’s Next?: Now that the data for these parts is in our system, we have the ability to quickly scan and design other parts to coincide with any these existing parts, making the opportunities to manipulate or change the style of this front end limitless.

Conclusion: We could have made the simple fix to the front-end that the client requested and they probably would have been very pleased. However, we are always looking at how we can improve designs. With 3D scanning and additive technologies we are able to improve the product development life cycle. The client now has a much more stylish and not to mention more durable front end with interchangeable options. It is important to not just create products, but to add value.

One last thing: In case you were wondering how we actually fixed the broken part, you can see the before and after images below. The image on the left shows the broken part and the image on the right shows the designed fix for it.  Quick, simple and very cost effective.