orbis™ clip development

I thought it would be cool to give you an insight into some of the work that went into development of the orbis™ ringflash, with an occasional new feature in the blog. All these posts will use the ‘orbis™ tech’ category, so if you want to read the series, over time you’ll be able to see all related posts by clicking on the ‘orbis™ tech’ category at the bottom of this post.

First up is a detail in the development of the clip component. We decided early on that the orbis™  ring flash should fit as wide a range of flashes as possible. Now from a business perspective, this makes no sense. It would be much better for us if every time you bought a new flash or upgraded your existing flash, you had to buy another orbis™. But as a photographer, I avoid equipment that will only work with a particular setup; equipment will always have to be upgraded. So the flash retention system we devised with our product designers offers unparalleled flexibility. The only downside of that is that it is going to take a hammering, with repeated use.

We turned to a local university’s engineering department to build a bench testing device that would stress the orbis™ more than would occur in normal use, to over 10,000 cycles in 24 hours. Here’s a photo of the setup.

The end result was a perfect score ! We couldn’t get the clip to break, thanks to the innovative plastic and design technology we put into it. And even more importantly, after that heavy use, the clip was of course slightly more open than usual, but after leaving it for half an hour it had returned to its original shape and was as good as new. It’s worth remembering though, if you’re not using your orbis™ it’s best not to leave your flash attached, as detailed in the manual.

Just a bit of insight into the work that went into the orbis™. JM