start of production || first pencils batch || start of printing
almost 5 years ago – Tue, Jun 29, 2021 at 05:30:58 AM

Hello backers,

Long time no see and much news to share with you since the previous update was published, so we’ll move right to them!

The first aspect is the financial one.
We cut our budget so now we don't have the support team.

We made that to accumulate more funds for production. That's why sharing updates and answering your requests takes more time now.

production news

Update on cooperation with RUKI.

RUKI is our representative in China which handles the communication and production chain with all of the factories.

They spent much time getting acquainted with the products, production technologies, and nuances.

After that, they started setting the production processes to continue the production of a test batch.

Some results on that:

Pencils

300-samples-batch of pencils is produced & tested & checked for absence of damages.

200 pencils shells were ready, but the rest 100 were not anodized (The process which protects the metal against corrosion, enhances aesthetic qualities, resists scratching, and is one of the most durable surface finishes available.)

All the tips and other components were just waiting for assembly.

At the end of last week, a whole batch of pencils was ready and passed the quality check.

After inspection RUKI discovered minor issues on a few pencils so some bodies need to be reworked and production has to fix it by the 28th of June.

Here are some photos of the assembly  process.

The notebook

Paper block production requires few steps:

1-> Printing layout on paper

2-> Folding and sewing pages together

3-> And the last one is gluing

Ink and printing

To remind: there were printing tests → for the ink order → payment.

After the payment proceeded, the supplier approved that all the components for the ink were ready, but they needed to mix them together into a custom suitable for us formula and wait 3-4 weeks due to a large number of orders in the queue.

Right after the ink was ready it was immediately shipped to the factory in charge of the printing stage.

Sewing

The first printed samples were delivered to the sewing factory to check if the technical printing layout is appropriate for the machine to sew exactly as needed, and they said it needs to be changed. Yeap.

We did a few more iterations of editing technical layout making printed samples for each of them.
        After that long process we’ve got the print sample with the pre-approved layout position and already sent it to the sewing factory and now they are double-checking it.

Straight after this approval, we start printing, then sewing and gluing paper blocks to make them ready for an assembly.

Assembly

We agreed with RUKI that they will be in charge of the final notebook assembly process and will make it in their assembly center.

Assembly machines were shipped from Ukraine and located in the RUKI office.

        Right after paper blocks are ready they’ll start the assembly.

Eraser

A few days ago a batch of bottles for the eraser were engraved with our print.

The bottle batch was accepted and checked for quality by the RUKI team.

The batch will be sent to the liquid factory to mix an eraser composition and fill the bottles with it.

Refunds
Kickstarter is a platform which was created for supporting fresh and innovative ideas and bringing them to products.

When nuka launched it was also an idea, that thanks to the backers support and really intensive and long R&D has become a product that is already under production.

This is a really long process that requires a lot of investments and monthly burn rate and we will definitely end this long way to deliver products to all backers.

To make it possible, now, on the production stage we can’t handle refunds anymore because our budget is really limited.

We estimate to ship a large batch to every backer by the end of the summer.

That's all for now.

As now we are receiving a lot of news from productions we will post updates and try to answer as many requests as possible.

        Next week we will give an update about the app and open a beta test for all iPhone users.

Thanks,

nuka team

tests | pencil & notebook assembly machines | manufacturing partner
almost 5 years ago – Fri, Apr 09, 2021 at 10:50:06 PM

We just settled some impactful issues and we’re ready to share the main news with you.

1.  Tests from production doublechecked

We received the samples of the latest covers, printing, pencils, and eraser bottles from the production. We tested the printing with different ink types and those were successfully washed off without damaging paper and printing.

2. Finished tooling machine for the pencil assembly

We developed a tooling machine for the pencil assembly.
The tooling machine allows putting together a pencil on the mass production without defects in the fastest way possible.

1. The most obvious feature - it holds the pencil body tight while assembling the pencil.
2. But its main function - putting a magnet inside of the body pencil in the right position We achieve that with a built-in magnet.
3. After the magnet is in the right position we lock it with a screw. We used silicone plugs before to keep magnets in place, now we changed them to screws. They are easier to screw in, and they fixate magnets better.
4. The final step - the pencil tip with a holding plug is screwed in.
   

3. tooling machine for assembly part. fin.

This babe brought us some problems this time.

The notebook’s assembly is a half-craft process. It came out that setting the cover into the machine, putting magnets into its places on the cover, and primer application takes too much master’s time. The glue wants things to be quicker.
We needed to reconstruct the tooling machine and divide the processes.

1 - Magnet placement.

We use a tool with built-in magnets to place them in magnet seats on the right pole.

The glue is applied to magnet seats, magnets are placed.

2 - tooling machine for connecting cover with a paper block.

We place the cover and block at their places in the tooling machine.

After the layer of primer, the tape is applied, and we connect the silicon cover with a block.

When we optimized and reconstructed the tooling machine, we made enough units for the assembly factory to allow them out together dozens of notebooks simultaneously.

What was the impact of this assembly machine’s moods?
300 (without no defects) of samples, ready to be assembled and sent to the owners are just waiting.
They will be finished as soon as new assembles arrive from Kyiv to Shenzhen, so probably we’ll send them as a first small batch, and then we’ll work on mass batch of 7k products.

And here the next news come:

4. Partnership with manufacturing consulting RUKI

After the Chinese New Year, some things like terms and production cost changed. We’ll continue the production with a new partner - RUKI manufacturing consulting.

They’ll provide a service with:
-Support with logistics and certification
-Production terms optimization
-Communication with factories, setting a production chain to obtain the final product and production of a batch
-Physical presence in China

-Management of the production process in accordance with our technical specifications

-Quality control

Today we had the first call after signing the contract.
We approve the new introductory, onboard our new partners on all the details and challenges.
They started the product research, its components, the technology of production.
After that, RUKI will get in touch with all the factories, will provide additional training if needed, make a negotiation about price and terms and start the production.

We’ll be publishing short updates right after receiving concrete information from the consulting.

It’ll never be the scam.

We feel you’re tired of this.
We’re not okay with giving you reasons why something is delayed instead of just giving you a product. But our conscience is clear.

This project isn’t a hobby or part-time employment. This is our life.
We’re keeping our duty to deliver nuka to you, our investors and support, no matter how hard it sometimes is, and what’s even harder - telling you that.
It wasn’t easy to face the development took us more time than we expected, the cost price went up and we exceeded the budget, but these are things that can be fixed. We believe, they already are fixed.
The product will be as you expect.

We're gonna post the next update sooner, once we get an estimation from our new partners RUKI.
We’re grateful for your support and those motivation&responsibility kicks!

No steps back, only steps forward
nuka team

Production update | Delivery
about 5 years ago – Tue, Feb 09, 2021 at 08:14:10 PM

Hello guys, 

Since the last update, things were going so intensive we felt like we were (and still are) in a production blockbuster with a roller coaster of challenges, success, deadlines, and new solutions.
The most crucial moments are taking place now, so we’ll try to share about it as much as possible.

The most important and happiest news:

We successfully tested the production of all nuka pieces.

We produced silicon covers (1000 samples to be precise), pencil bodies and tips, made pages printing, sewing, and gluing them into the paper blocks. We received eraser bottles, all kinds of magnets, and pencil plugs for the first batch of delivery.

silicon covers

pencil bodies and plugs

paper blocks after printing, sewing, and gluing

magnets

bottles to be branded and filled with an eraser

Did you expect it all went smoothly? 

Unfortunately, it’s impossible to take any step without challenges. We produced all the pieces, but not the amount we planned in time. Here is when it got hot and challenged us. 

A Chinese New Year, a huge holiday in China. It usually falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice (Wikipedia) and it lasts for 15 days. This year it’s on the 12th of February.

What did it mean for us? To deliver the first batch in time, the factories had to finish all the components and deliver them to the assembly factory before it closes for the holiday.

We had it all set and done: technical tasks were sent, agreements signed, tooling machines set. Then a couple of the conductors are informing us that they can not deliver products in time (the best time to inform, isn’t it?). In this short period, we had to change the conductor for the eraser(twice). A conductor for the printing solution we had been searching for, and finally found, ditched us. Two weeks ago, they informed us that they won’t be able to do the planned amount of printing in an outlined deadline.

Good news that another suitable factory was found (the result of their printing samples confirm that)

The bad news is that one of the conductors informed us too late about their inability to finish the process in time. They were in charge of sewing and gluing paper blocks. 

Although we did find a new conductor, it was already too close to the New Year. The gluing technology is atypical, we had to send the specialist to control the block gluing process of the batch. We have been in touch with her to explain all the details. We got the right setup and the factory successfully managed to produce as many as possible, but it came out not enough for the batch.

Game over? Absolutely not.

It means we have to wait for Chinese New Year to pass.

The roadmap from our CTO looks like this:

After the 20th of February, we finish all the remaining components →  the assembly and packaging are finishing in the last week of March → delivery.

What about the production in April?
We’re still on that!
The next batch size is 10 000 samples.
And there are no more holidays to slow down the production)

Guys, despite the problems we met even this time, we’re happy to share with you the real results and real pictures of product production we’re proud of. 

Even the small detail is a result of a huge scope of work. Thanks for sharing this road with us.
Soon, we start the delivery of the first batch. At least we hope so and do everything (un)humanly possible to achieve that.

App development | Printing | Delivery update
over 5 years ago – Tue, Dec 15, 2020 at 10:01:24 PM

Hi, guys! We want to share with you our victories and struggles we've come through.

Now nuka app can transfer your handwriting to digital text. 

#handwritting-recognition

We’ve been working on handwriting recognition and succeeded! Now you can digitize your handwritten notes in English, Chinese, Japanese, and lots more. Also, digitalization allows you to edit the content of your notes and transfer them to document or digital notes for further work.

Our desire is to build nuka as a system for efficient and comfortable work, studying, reflection, or literally anything you have on your mind. 

 
 Printing

A muuch-awaited printing conductor found!
We couldn’t accept the option to leave the pages blank.
 A lot of nuka functions depend on the layouts (to-do, planner).
 

Based on the results of the tests new printing is far resistant to an eraser and it doesn’t take an eternity to print it. 

As we mentioned previously our paper is special in every meaning. It’s smooth so ink just slips immediately or stays till the eraser is used. The second problem was the major one.

We ended up testing 40 different types of ink. We narrowed it to two of them. 

Then we had to test even more with the print modes, amount of ink, and some other adjustments. That’s how we learned that only one type of two options is suitable for nuka.

It was a long road. An incredibly important problem we had to solve, and we nailed it!

About the Delivery. 

We are sorry for being out of the radar these past months. 

We don't want to make an excuse. We want to talk face to face. Here is the address of Nikita, CEO. 

We highlighted the main points for you:

 - We were delayed by 4 weeks of searching, testing, and tuning of printing solutions, which put us out for 3 weeks in January.
 - Our mass production will start with a 500 unit batch to avoid defects. It should be delivered by February to the first customers.

- The second batch with all rest units should be delivered in April (first week)

We have two little requests for you. 

Please, check your Backerkit account and make sure the details of your order are correct.

Also, check all folders in your mail tomorrow in the evening. We'll send a letter to those who get the first batch of nuka.

We look forward to it and work every day to make sure you get nuka the way we designed it.

We are the last ones who want to postpone anything, especially now, but even more, we don't want to deliver a defective and bad product to you.

We need your support and understanding now more than ever. Thank you!

Keep in touch and stay safe!

nuka team

Materials shipping| App is on its way | World Paper Free Day
over 5 years ago – Sat, Oct 31, 2020 at 01:58:07 AM

Hi guys,

Previously we shared the news about ordering materials.
A couple of days ago the first packages arrived to our distributors in China.
4,5 tones of ‘paper’ and silicone for the covers in our storage allow us to start the first stage of nuka production!

The glue is next in the line. We have come a long way in testing and choosing the most suitable, so we ordered it later. Now it’s shipping to the distributor in China too.

We are looking for a conductor that can print on on mass-production. The challenge is that our eraser keeps wiping out the regular type of print from the paper.
Our conductor was able to use a printing technique that fits our paper properties, but printing machines that the factory uses are too small and slow for the notebook. It takes 3 minutes to print one page! That’s why it’s not the option for mass-production. We already got in contact with other conductors that may have suitable printing options for nuka!

Final versions of covers

We found the Apple Watch band as a nice reference for the cover material. We tested it and made the first covers with it! It’s tactile amazing, and we already got it in stock waiting for its big time.

We improved and finalized the mold and the covers samples came a couple of days ago. They met all our expectations that failed in the past versions. Now the logo is clear, it resists damage, it doesn’t smudge, the juncture line is neat.

Here are the covers from a finalized mold. (The dark notebook color will be different from what is at the picture. We were testing the mold).

At the same time, we are updating the nuka app

The main results of it:

• An updated app workflow
   
• Developed UX of scan area trim function
   
• The scanning area is filled with green highlight instead of only a frame
   
• Improved scan editing function to make pages sharper, more contrast, or brighter if it’s needed.
   

Now we are working on the handwriting recognition function → transforming it to digital notes → editing them.

Here is how the handwriting recognition function would work and look like:

 

The next step will be a To-Do list recognition → transformation them into digital To-Do lists

We never celebrated nuka’s birthday yet, but this day could be something like that for us.

November 6 is a World Paper Free Day

An annual campaign that aims to reduce the amount of paper generated by people in their everyday work and personal life. On this day, businesses and people are encouraged to stop using paper for one day.

Should we tell you the reasons for going paperless? We’re sure you know them perfectly!
 

However, we wanna share with you some ideas on spending this day effectively.

• Skim through the paperwork you have around your working spaces and recycle pages you don’t need. Make digital copies of them as may be necessary.
   
• If you still buy the newspaper or magazine in a paper form, switch to its digital version, we’re sure it exists! You can also refuse to buy a new paper book and get an eBook instead.
   
• Share your idea about going paperless with your team, colleagues, or random people you meet)
   
• Find one process which you can improve by reducing the paper use.

We know the best way to celebrate this day would be using a nuka.
But very soon we’ll be celebrating paperless weeks, months, and years together!