Thruster Supply Chain Update

Blue Robotics Products Thrusters and Motors
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Hello subsea humans! We want to share a quick update on the availability of our thruster and motor stock including the T500, T200, and M200. We are currently low or out-of-stock on these products due to some supplier issues and global geo-political issues. This has also caused a delayed launch date for the M500 Motor, which was previously slated for July-August. For transparency, we’re sharing the status here:

T500 Thruster Technical Issue:

For several months we’ve been dealing with an issue with one part arriving damaged from our supplier and further damage showing up during production. That’s making it very difficult to reliably produce thrusters. Here’s what we’re doing:

  • We’re rolling out some design tweaks currently as a short-term solution.
  • We’re working closely with our supplier on quality assurance to make sure we get good parts.
  • We’re implementing long-term design improvements to make the T500 more robust and easier to manufacture.

We expect this issue to be largely resolved, but it has ripple effects and is compounded by the issue below.

T200, M200, and T500 Supply Chain Issues:

During ongoing tariff negotiations between the USA and China, China is holding shipments of rare earth materials and doing inspections that add 60-90+ days to shipments. We get rare-earth magnets from China (where 85% of all magnets are made) but our shipments have been held up since April. Here’s what we’re doing about that:

  • We are working with our supplier to put pressure on shipments clearing inspection.
  • We are attempting to have additional smaller shipments sent in the interim.
  • Keeping an eye on the news for policy changes that might lead to resolution.

We know how important these components are to your work and we are doing everything we can to resolve these challenges as quickly as possible. Please check back here for continued updates. Thank you for your continued patience and support.

If you have any questions or need help adjusting plans, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

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Wait a sec, does this mean that those tariffs are not a good idea?!

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Hello everyone,

We really appreciate everyone being along on this rollercoaster with us. I wanted to share a couple of updates from the last few days.

Last Friday, the US and China reached an agreement on the export of rare earth materials, which hopefully means our shipments that have been stuck in customs will make their way to us. Of course, this could be out of date by tomorrow, but the news is good as it stands.

We’ve also diverted most of our R&D efforts towards longer-term solutions to this problem, including improving the thruster designs overall and making our supply chain strategy more resilient to geopolitical issues like this.

We realllly appreciate everyone’s patience as we work through this! Please feel free to comment on this thread with any questions or comments.

:heart: Elisa

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Hello folks, me again with another update.

First off, we want to say thank you to all of our amazing partners and friends who have offered to help us get our parts to the US. We love you :heart_exclamation: The thing is, China is controlling exports to ANY country, so sadly, forwarding through another country is not a path we are pursuing right now :smiling_face_with_tear:

Next up, we have tracking for another batch of parts, and I’m sharing here so you can follow along with us :grimacing: So far, it’s off to a good start and is not currently held up by anything (although it WAS like 45 min ago!!!)

Once we have this batch of T200/M200 rotors, we will be able to resume building thrusters and motors. We know y’all are hurting for them - we are too. Let keep our fingers crossed that this next attempt is successful :crossed_fingers:

I’ll be back with anything substantial to share. As a reminder, we are accepting orders, as this will help us to better schedule and prepare accordingly. Please email sales@bluerobotics.com or lindsey@bluerobotics.com and we will get your order in the queue.

xx Elisa :vulcan_salute:

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Thanks Elisa, you refer to ‘this batch of T200/M200’ rotors. Will T500’s be part of another batch?

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Yes! We’re expecting that to ship out this week :grimacing:

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Hello friends!

We have good news. The latest batch of T200/M200 rotors have been delivered!!! Additionally, some T500 rotors were also delivered! BUT, we are now out of T500 stators (due to using more than normal because the original quality issues that we have since resolved.)

We’re working hard to continue building thursters as we receive parts. Your continued patience is extremely appreciated!

Over and out :vulcan_salute:

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Hi all, here with a final update :slight_smile:

We’ve got tracking for another shipment of T200/M200 rotors. If these arrive, we will be in solid shape and will be able to fulfill all backorders and begin restocking the store :grimacing:

For T500s, we’re working through our backorders, and we should receive more parts to continue building in early August. We will continue to accept orders and we should be able to get these back on the store as soon as we can!

Thanks again for everyone’s patience!! Happy weekend :smiley:

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