Re: Future Panel Options (also long)
2005-12-01 by paulhaneberg
Hi all, I wanted to elaborate on what Dave has just posted. First, let me reiterate what Dave has said about Paul S. Do not hassle him about a possible change in panel design. This is a Stooge concept we are talking about. What we are engaged in here is educated speculation. The panels are a nightmare. First you have to find a sheet metal vendor/machine shop. This is difficult, because they all want to do runs of 10,000 pieces. not 100 or 200. Secondly, they are all flaky. They do not deliver on time, they don't return phone calls, etc. Did I mention that the sheet metal company that was doing the work for the stooges was sold to a large company that has no interest in continuing? Secondly you have to find a painter. The paint is a special superhard multipart epoxy coating which must be applied in three coats, a primer, the main coat (this is what you see on the back of the panel) and a "spatter" coat which gives the panel it's textured look. Most painter hate this stuff and won't do it. Thirdly you have to have a silk screener. There is a setup charge every time the screen must be changed. There is an initial charge for making the screen. Sometimes the graphics come out blurred. If the holes are punched out ahead of time (as is the case with official SynthTech panels) there can be registration errors, meaning the silkscreen graphics are not perfectly aligned with the holes. This is why the Stooge Panels are run so infrequently. So we have been investigating alternatives. Here's the general idea: First the metalwork might be done in house. We are investigating this. The panel itself, together with the corner holes would be stamped out on a 60 ton press. We could do up to 3U this way. Larger panels would probably have to be milled out. A second 40 ton press would be equipped with a die using a system of removable punches and bushings. In most cases all the holes would be punched out at once. There would be a few situations where holes would be milled. For reasonably sized runs there would be little or no drilling required. Secondly, panels would be anodized rather than painted. Anodizing creates pores in the metal itself which are then filled with a die and sealed. This is an electrochemical process. The finish becomes part of the panel rather than being bonded to the surface. Thirdly, panels would be laser etched. This would be done using a computer controlled laser. The etching penetrates and burns off the anodizing where the beam contacts the metal and actually penetrates a short distance into the aluminum by vaporizing the metal. The graphics can be extremely sharp and detailed as the accuracy of the laser is a few ten thousandths of an inch. There can be edge graphics to delineate one module from another. There can be more precise tick marks, there can be flow diagrams where there is room. Pretty much anything you can draw can be etched. In addition to offering Stooge Panels for those custom designs or mods of other manufacturers products we could offer a complete line of replacement panels for existing MOTM modules with high definition graphics. There would be no setup charge for mounting the sinkscreen. There would be no charge for making the silkscreen. For those esoteric designs we could stock blank panels which would only require etching (and drilling or milling.) We could essentially reduce the lead time from a year or so down to a week or two. So, to summarize, in exchange for going with a slightly different finish on panels we could reduce the lead time to a week or two, reduce the cost by as much as 70%, and improve the graphics. That's the trade off. But, we could even go beyond that! It may be possible (at a higher cost of course) to combine silkscreening of areas on the panel with the laser etching process for something truly spectacular. You could truly customize your synth! And while you're thinking about that, how about custom made wooden cabinets with computer controlled customized carving? How cool would that be?