Hyperion Hero Carbon Fiber Ring Project
THIS PROJECT WAS NOT FUNDED
About this project
What you are reading was an unsuccessful self crowdfunding project from Oct-Nov 2017. We decided to donate 5% to a charity and run the campaign without a popular crowdfunding platform. I'm leaving this page up for anyone curious about how the project went. If you'd like to order a ring go here.
Over the last few years the men's ring industry has exploded to unprecedented levels. Look in a jewelry store or online and you'll see a vast selection. The problem of men's rings being considered an afterthought is no more. So why do men need another ring? Hold on, don't go anywhere just yet! My goal with this project is to plot a new course in luxury multi-piece ring designs. This new design direction will rely heavily on the integration of new and old materials. The elements of light, color, depth, and texture will be combined in new ways over the coming years. The Hyperion ring is the first foray into this new adventure. Please join me in the new renaissance of men's ring design. I need your support to make it happen. Let's build something you'll want to hand down to future generations ;)
Adam R. Weeks - Ring Maker
The images below show the same ring in fully charged and ambient (no-charge mode). To see more about how they glow keep reading.
How long does the glow last?
Most people unfamiliar with Phosphorescent material have unrealistic expectation of how it performs. Charging the ring under a single 5000k, 9.5 watt LED bulb for 10 minutes I timed how long the glow was very impressive and it lasted about 6 minutes and was still very good but slightly more dim until about 13 minutes. It still glowed at this point but not nearly as impressive as the first 6 minutes. It will stay at this dim glow level for many hours without a charge. Charging this in natural sunlight will net more impressive results. If you walk into a building from outside it will glow like crazy! I'm not going to tell you this ring glows like the picture for hours. Expect 10-13 minutes of impressive glow minimum. I want you to know exactly what you are funding including the pros and cons. Europium powders are a new generation of glow material much different than the old Zinc Sulfide based glow products of the past. In daylight, all the Europium powders appear off-white in color. When fully charged, all glow powders will produce a bright afterglow for a short time, level off to a moderate level of brightness, slowly dimming over the remainder of the glow duration. The green and aqua colors will remain visible for as long as 30 hours. The length of time a glow powder is said to 'glow' is defined as the time it takes for the afterglow brightness to diminish to 0.32 mcd (0.32 mcd is 100 times the Human visible perception limit). Even at this level, the glow is clearly visible in darkness. The green and aqua are comparable and by far the brightest and longest afterglow. Obviously, the level of glow at 2 hours is not nearly as bright as it is at 10 minutes after light exposure, but you can plainly see it in the dark. Blue has a lower glow brightness and shorter afterglow duration compared to the green and aqua. This is partly due the response of the Human eye. Our eyes are much more sensitive to the color green as compared to blue. Green will always appear brighter to the eye. Violet is the least bright of all the glow colors.
How do I charge my Hyperion ring?
Sunlight, ordinary indoor lighting as well as UV (blacklight) can be used to charge your ring. The more UV wavelengths the light contains, the faster it will charge. Sunlight (3,000 - 50,000 lux light level) will charge up the powder the fastest, requiring only 5 minutes of exposure. A 'workshop type' Fluorescent lamp (500 lux light level) is rich in UV light - holding the powder close to a bright fluorescent lamp will charge it up in about 10 minutes. An ordinary 60 watt incandescent (tungsten filament) lamp (30 to 50 lux light level) will take 30 minutes to charge up the powder due to the lack of UV wavelength in incandescent bulbs. UV (blacklights) will charge your ring extremely fast. Other glow materials will degrade if constantly exposed to bright light. In 15 to 100 hours of exposure, the glow properties of ordinary glow powders become permanently reduced to a fraction of what they originally were. Not so with the glow powder we use. Even after 1,000 hours under direct exposure to intense mercury vapor light, Europium retains 96% of its glow output.
About The Designer
My name is Adam Weeks. I started prototyping the first line of carbon fiber jewelry in the world back in 2003-04. In 2004 I was laid off from my job as project manager at an advanced composite company working on the Corvette program for GM. I lost my job after my wife/business partner and I purchased our first house. I was laid off on her birthday no less! It was time to put this new venture into high gear and we haven't looked back since. Read more about our journey here. What qualifies me to be a jewelry designer? Nothing but desire. I have no degree from any design program but I believe the desire to create is inborn in all of us. My chosen direction just happens to be really exciting men's rings.
Project Challenges
I started developing a ring based on a ladder design back in April. One of first challenges we faced was to ensure the holes for the pins were equally spaced and aligned perfectly. Since the holes are relatively small this requires CNC accuracy and a special drill bit. Drill flex and the density of the quality carbon laminate meant the feeds and speeds needed to be optimized. We burned through some material before we brought the tolerances to less than .008” drift hole to hole. I won’t tell you how good but it’s almost impossible to see the deviation. Contouring the prototype was and will continue to be done on a manual lathe. This process can be optimized as well but it went relatively smooth the first time. After the ladder design worked I set my sights on adding depth to the design, i.e. stainless pins that were not machined through but instead given center stage in the design. Speaking of pins… On the 2nd prototype I spent about 20 minutes polishing each of the 16 / ½” long pins. That’s about 5 hours on polishing alone. I plan on using a tumbling strategy for production. Each of the holes are precisely reamed for a near press fit prior to fitting the pins. The fit must be tight enough to keep glow resin from seeping onto the face of the pins as it cures. That would be a disaster! To insert each pin I built a small aluminum driver tool shwon in one of the pictures below. This way I have the same pocket depth on both sides to back fill with glow resin. Our goal now is to improve the efficiency of our process and seek for other ways to improve the quality even more.