It's been a great summer with hive of activity at the Heatle premises. We have been busy organizing components, ramping up production, improving the product and preparing our new manufacturing facility. Now that summer is coming to an end, it's time for us to share some news and report on production and developments.
Current status
We continue to produce the Heatles in our own offices and, given the circumstances, are making good progress towards completing the pre-order list. The biggest limiting factor right now is the space that is available to us. We are currently renting rooms in a co-working space in Berlin.
But that will soon change, because this week the new premises will be ready and we can move in. The additional space and professional production facilities will allow us to ramp up production.
Scaling up production
Whilst waiting for our new facilities to be finished, we used every inch of our limited space to keep the manufacturing process going and prepare for the larger-scale production scheduled for October and beyond.
To help us with the production of this batch, we were fortunate that 7 fledgling engineers studying engineering at the renowned HMS School of Berlin applied for an internship.
During their time working with us, they will experience what it takes to take an idea through the prototype stages right up to a finished product in production.
Each trainee engineer is working on a sub-assembly in the Heatle, like the front knob with spring and magnet, and the top ring assembly with LED display and induction coil. All work is double-checked for quality before being marked with a QA-OK sticker.
Until then, we make sure that these young men learn a lot of new skills, for example, we have been organising professional engineering workshops in CAD & CAM, (Computer Aided Design / Manufacturing) allowing them to design their own products in the future and be able produce them using common machines, laser cutters and 3D printers all available in our workspace.
Preparations for moving into the "Heatle Factory"
This photo is from the July update: it shows the initial work. The old ceiling and floor were torn down and a breakthrough was made. The drywall panels are for the conference/meeting room and other facilities.
And this photo is from just now (early October):
This July photo shows the non-production work area:
And this is how it looks now - the area for the demo kitchen, office and meetings:
Our new facilities are ready and they are absolutely perfect for our need. We turned an old, run-down and grim factory hall into a large, modern and bright space with lots of room for production and storage as well as development work and, of course, customer visits and live demos.
Everything is in place to step up our manufacturing game and produce larger batches in a shorter time. Starting in October, we will set everything up and are already excited about the new capabilities. We are also very much looking forward to welcoming you in our new space once we are all set.
Further funding secured
We are happy to announce that we finally managed to secure our next round of financing that will help us reach the next level as a company. It took over 8 months of incredibly hard work in a very tough environment, but we finally managed to sign the papers and embark on a new journey with great new investors.
We would also specifically like to thank you all for your continued support, words of encouragement throughout such difficult times and for showing us every day that what we do is highly important and tremendously anticipated. We will keep doing our best every single day to return the favour and make you happy and loyal customers!
More pictures from September
Recup is fantastic - two Recups are doubly fantastic! With an additional rod you can heat two identical cups at the same time in duo mode. With plastic, you should always use the Heatle soft mode with limited power - this takes longer, but protects the plastic, which could potentially be damaged. In duo mode, the sticks share the energy and therefore you can usually use plastic cups - always under supervision, of course.
Another truckload of components has finally arrived. Luckily, a colleague with a forklift was nearby.
The high-quality and partially fragile components are well packaged and arrived undamaged. Here you can see metal cartridges for the rods as well as coils. Then everything goes to our large warehouse.
