After a successful Kickstarter campaign for Cx5 Sculptable Filament in August, we at ABI ran into a very difficult fall and winter. As many of you have heard, founder Adam Beane has been experiencing health issues, specifically heart issues, that have required hospitalization and major lifestyle alterations. Instead of using critical time for development and manufacturing of Cx5sf, we were spending time in emergency rooms, while attempting to keep up with standard manufacturing obligations to fulfill worldwide demand for Cx5h and Cx5s.
It turns out that drastically reducing stress in order to maintain heart health does not fit with running a small scale manufacturing operation and simultaneously focusing on new product development. While these medical issues are finally getting under control, some things have needed to shift here at ABI.
Although Kickstarter funded successfully, we now need far more time to complete our obligations to backers. We are delaying the completion of the Cx5sf Kickstarter rewards by a year. They should have been sent out this month, but we are simply not ready.
We are also selling through our existing inventory of sculpting materials starting today, and then we will be pausing sales until further notice.
During this downtime we will be looking for partner opportunities to outsource manufacturing of Cx5, so we can relieve the stresses of small scale manufacturing, preserve Adam’s health, and focus on finishing development of Cx5 Sculptable Filament.
If we can find a suitable larger scale manufacturing solution for Cx5, then we can much more easily fulfill demand without needing to attend to every facet of manufacturing in our facility, leaving us better able to focus on customer relationships and new product development.
Starting today, we are focusing on what the next phase of ABI will look like. We love our products and want to get them back in your hands as soon as possible, and we’ll keep you up to date on our progress towards that goal.