75% of the Kickstarter funding was supposed to be used for "Purchase and removal of Trixie, Walter and Big Boy".
Trixie was the machine to produce triacetate base. Walter is the equipment for making the coating and Big Boy is the actual coater.
The P30 was as I understand made on Little Boy, which is the lab scale coating machine that was available already from the beginning. They also seem to use triacetate base that also was available in storage. The capacity of these machines are stated to be 3000 rolls per week. Thus, if they had been running continuously, they would have been making around 80,000 rolls in half a year. By selling those, the revenue would have been double the Kickstarter funding.
So, this raises a few questions: Since they are not using any of thes machines they raised money for, are they even operational? Why are they not producing and selling P30 as they said they would?
The equipment we purchased IS functional, but our Kickstarter campaign did not raise enough to purchase the equipment AND install it - only to make the purchases. Raising enough for installations was not even the goal - we simply needed to save the stuff before it was demolished.
Installing the equipment carries a separate price tag. Many of the installations require modifications to the building itself (removing walls, reinforcing the floor), plus the labor of moving, rebuilding and testing the machines.
Regarding P30 - the capacity of Little Boy is far greater than 3000 rolls per week. That number was referring to the maximum capacity of our emulsions making (for now, until we can bring more of "Walter" online).
The issue regarding P30 is that our finishing partner is limited to around 1000 rolls per week, so coating 3000 rolls per week is pointless.
We have been working VERY hard on this issue over the past couple of months and we have not yet found a viable alternative.
If we are able to secure investment, it would greatly speed the process of installations and open our production bottleneck - but without significant sales on the books, we would require an investor who shares and understands our vision, and who can see a very clear path to maximize their ROI.
So far, no such investor has stepped forward. And so we proceed on our slow and steady course.