The gem blocks were one of our most beautifull toys, but also one of the most frustrating ones to design. We knew that other companies would use wooden dowels to keep the gem in place, but we wanted to find a different way. Our first solution was to cut the blocks so that they had a small ridge that the gem could sit on. Then we would use a food-safe epoxy to keep the gems in place. This was a manufacturing nightmare. If too much epoxy was applied, then some would ooze onto the gem. If not enough epoxy was applied, then the gem would fall out. We also found out that if there were temperature or humidity fluctuations, the gem would also fall out. We tried a food-safe silicone as well. That worked better with environmental fluctuations, but was still hard to apply.
We finally agreed that we needed the wood to hold the gem in place. Our solution was to cut the gem bloks in two pieces that had a geometry that would fit together like puzzle pieces, sandwhiching the gem on the inside. At first, we created a shape that had 4 prongs on one side, and 4 holes on the other. However, we had problems with the glue squeezing onto the gem and the cut-time was too long.
We were able to solve both problems with one solution by changing the shape of the 2 sides. Our second design was able to use (insert part for Rhett here) to produce a faster cut time, and also created a ridge so that glue could be applied away from the gem. There was still plenty of surface area for the glue to adhere, but our gems were coming out clean. We had finally created a gem block where the gem couldn't fall out, and which could be produced in a way that was fast, consistant, and exact.
