Starting Fresh
Hello, and thank you for following our blog!
Are you new to the Vent Vault project? We love to see new faces! To summarize; the Vent Vault is a device designed for life safety, first and foremost. It’s a product that helps motorists and officers during police interactions such as traffic stops. It allows motorists to access their license, registration, proof of insurance, and if applicable concealed carry permit, without having to reach in locations that may be out of the line of sight of the officer. The device is designed to be as highly visible as possible while also being as distinct from a weapon as possible to help prevent any misunderstandings that can lead to an officer related shooting.
We really appreciate the feedback that we’ve received from our community regarding the Vent Vault, and we are endeavoring to make it better. We are completely redesigning the Vent Vault based on your feedback [redundant - “suggestions”], and of course we are always open to more feedback as we are in our development phase. We want to make the best life saving product we can!
The first part of the Vent Vault that we redesigned is the card case itself. The community didn’t like the idea of something that can only hold two cards and some documents, and that’s completely fair! That’s why we designed a slim wallet that holds your license and 6 cards, along with a money clip for cash. The Vent Vault 2 will still have a place for your registration and proof of insurance that is in plain sight, but it will stay with the vehicle as opposed to on your person.
Right now the Vent Vault 2 doesn’t function as an RFID blocker, another function that was widely requested, but it’s definitely something we are going to look into once we have the basics down. 3D printing and manufacturing is already a fairly new field, and new advancements are being made every day, but right now the only material that can reliably block RFID scanners in a 3D printed product is Carbon Fiber (CF). The reason why we decided to go Acrylonitrile Styrene Acrylate (ASA) for the VV itself is that it is both UV (sunlight) and thermal resistant, while still giving us color options. Visibility is important with the Vent Vault. It helps law enforcement quickly identify the device in your car. Those color options are critically important to the visibility aspect of the Vent Vault.
Is ASA easy to work with? Not really; it’s very difficult to design parts that will print correctly every time with ASA, but it’s worth the time and effort for the benefits of a material that we know will survive in the wide range of environments that most vehicles are subjected to. CF on the other hand is extremely limited with color options, usually only being available on a spectrum between white, gray, and black. These color limitations would restrict the Vent Vault to the same color options as most weapons, like guns, tasers, etc. CF is also known to cause more wear and tear on 3D printers, something we don’t have a budget for right now. We are definitely open to the idea of using CF in some way in the future to block RFID scanners, but for now we’re focused on developing a product that will help keep situations deescalated during law enforcement interactions.
We will absolutely keep you updated as we continue to develop this life saving product!
You can also check out our journey on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtLmbLKSNRgFwjGsUQ4wm2PjBcuStgwdh
In the meantime, here’s a side by side comparison of the new wallet (left) compared to the old card holder (right).
