THE FUEGO BLOG

My job takes me around the world to build products. I travel to make contacts with manufacturers worldwide in order to locate the best fitting partners to produce our products. My focus currently is the Fuego Modular, which has landed me in Taichung, Taiwan, working with a high quality, and highly flexible niche producer of high-end grills and their stainless products. Since the first Modular concept and design, which was showcased last year, the product has now been approved for production and is currenlty in the full production design, engineering, testing, and certification phase. We are thrilled to be on target to begin mass production in September.

During this trip, our main goal was to review the first production prototype aesthetics. The difference between a design prototype and a production prototype is that the design prototype is usually made by highly flexible laser cutting machines. For mass production we rely more on stamping and punching machines in order to reduce the high cost of laser cutting. So I was there to ensure that the new production prototype was up to par. This was a very successful trip, and I look forward to final review at the end of this month.

The Fuego modular will be offered in a five module system with an optional return unit. Customers will be able to mix and match the individual module units. The grill units will have the patented interchangeable drawer system. Cut-out templates will be provided for the bar-counter installation, as well as the return unit counter (sink is also optional to users). The return unit will have two side by side 24" storage cabinets, or choice of one or two slide-in 24" under-counter refrigeration (refrigerator, wine-cooler, or freezer units). We are designing drawer fronts to match these options.

As I continue this project, I'll be sure to update the blog with progress reports.