#Flamingos can't fly - Dye sub keycaps
proud kraken
Quality Control and Defects
All batches of all products get checked by quality control in some way. Most of the time these checks are done by sampling. Enough units from any given batch are checked to be confident that the sample is a good representation for the entire batch.
There's a science to sampling. If you're interested in learning more, last summer I wrote a post describing our quality control process for the 80HE: #📦│batch_updates message
When quality control finds defects in a sample from a batch, we get notified and have to make a decision for how to proceed. Our options are:
- Accept the batch as-is, including defects. Sometimes this is the best choice, especially if the defect(s) identified are minor and rare.
- Perform additional sampling to better understand the scope of the problem.
- Perform a full inspection to sort out affected units to either rework or destroy.
- Rework the entire batch.
- Reject and destroy the entire batch.
The status and decisions for xx-Flamingo
The specific defects identified by our quality control for this batch included:
- Blue dots on the underside keycaps
- Color staining on the keycaps
The rate of keycap sets with at least one defect was as high as 10% - this was unacceptable. Wooting decided to have this batch fully inspected and rework or replace the affected keycaps.
After the rework was completed, quality control again inspected the batch. Regretfully, the act of reworking these keycaps introduced new defects:
- Scratches
- Dirty marks
Due to these additional problems, Wooting has decided to reproduce the entire batch of keycaps.
Below, you'll find some example pictures of the defects we documented in this batch. Some of them are very minor, but a few are major. Note: these pictures have had branding and other confidential information removed with generative AI inpainting.