Hi Brandon, the Genesis is usually the hot topic. Mainly because we announced it way too soon! So here are a few facts about the Genesis and BelQuette to preface my response as to where we are with it.
Years ago, we had decided to build a new platform. It wasn't the Genesis, but it was one where we wrote our own code and made our own boards to drive a print head. It actually performed very well but when we came across the latest Ricoh industrial heads, we realized these were the heads we wanted, so we scrapped the project. We then began developing boards and converting over our code to drive the Ricoh head.
As many know, in October 2014 we debuted the Genesis at SGIA. It is now late January 2017 and we realize, we were extremely premature in doing so.
Some of the complications we came up against was how to drive the head and tweak it to the point where we were able to achieve repeatable printing and firing of the heads. Believe it or not, this process can take years, and it did take us over a year to get it right. We are the only company in America who builds their own DTG printer in-house, this includes all our own code and boards. We are one of the few in the world who also do this. The other companies are either multi-billion dollar companies or they are high in the millions. We are a company of about 25 employees, so we have limited resources both financially and in personnel. Yet what we have accomplished in a few years with the Genesis has Ricoh scratching their heads in amazement, but if we would have had the many engineers that other companies have, we might have been able to get the Genesis out sooner. We also did everything ourselves without help from anyone, so this was a process that was more like "Whoops, I shouldn't have done that!".
We did have an engineer that has not been in a manufacturing environment design the body and overall structure of the printer. When we attempted to manufacture several printers for the first time, we were able to produce one Genesis in about 3-4 weeks. Obviously not sustainable, so we had to redesign the entire frame, base and overall structure. Once everything is in motion, we estimate we should be able to produce about one per day with our current manufacturing line(s). To meet high demands, we simply have to duplicate our current manufacturing line(s). Unfortunately, the redesign of the Genesis to make manufacturing possible in a timely manner has set us back another year.
Ok, now that is out of the way as to some explanation as to the long delays, here is where we currently are. The Genesis has been beta tested with great results. We have customers that do want both non-white ink printers along with white ink printers. The non-white ink printers are almost double the speed of the white ink printers so we have been working on both them consecutively. The white ink printers need more parts and programming due to the handling of the white ink, but it's mainly the programming side that is more time consuming.
After going through the beta program, a couple of our customers wanted to order the non-white version in order to meet their peak season for 2016. So we began manufacturing non-white ink printers, in total 20. We installed these printers and they were put into a real world production environment. If anyone knows anything about beta, you realize you never get all the feedback you need, but when a product is released, that's when you get the real feedback. Thankfully the issues were basic and nothing detrimental to the product itself, but nonetheless there were issues. We addressed the issues but a couple of points came about due to this situation. First, we found a better way of doing a couple things on the printer. The better way is also simpler, so it helps our manufacturing process as well as tech support. So we are working on developing one item and have completely finished redesigning the other. Second, this process delayed our white ink development. When we knew we had to develop 20 printers in a short period of time, install them and ensure everything was running to spec, we understood we had to stop any progress on the white ink printer. We are currently working on the white ink printer again.
We went to ISS Long Beach last week and demoed the Genesis with the many changes we had since the last time we had taken it to a show. The white ink machine wasn't truly ready to bring back to a show but we didn't want to leave it in the dark for people, so we brought it. It printed very well and as anyone can attest, it is fast. I'm still amazed at the speed of the printer since I'm used to the Mod1 over the past 7-8 years. The Mod1 can still easily compete with most printers on the market, but the Genesis is twice the speed and a pleasure to print with. Incidentally, going to Long Beach was a great thing for the Genesis. One of the owners (Brett) traveled with me but probably shouldn't have. He had been sick for over a week and it didn't seem he was getting much better. The other owner (Mark) decided to come as well due to the situation to help one other person and myself at the show. Brett ended up staying in hotel room the entire time with a computer redesigning one of the two parts aforementioned. So his time was well spent mainly due to no interruptions.
When is our plan for release? At this stage, barring any unforeseen circumstances, we do have hopes of a release in the April-May time frame. We've got quite a bit to do in that short period of time, but this is the first time we have what appears to be a somewhat solid idea. We always tried to stay away from giving an actual release date just simply because we didn't know what to expect. Every printer we've ever developed dating back to 1996 was an existing paper printer torn apart and rebuilt. This is the first printer we have every developed from ground zero. The great thing is, with the groundwork we have done here, it opens up the expediting of future products since we don't have to reinvent the wheel. If we were to rely on any other company for their technology whether it be an existing printer or their code and boards to drive a print head, we could have a new product on the market most likely within six months (depending on the simplicity or complexity of the product). So we do know the Genesis has laid the foundation for many other products to come.
I know it's a bit winded, but I felt it was good to lay out the history of the product and some of the most time consuming challenges to give an idea of how far we have come and what we've been able to actually accomplish. Once we are a little bit further ahead from now to then, we are considering doing a live stream on the Genesis with Q&A for those who have waited for some time.
