PolyScience: Product Testing in the Cannabis Industry

Real world applications are an important consideration for any new product design. Prematurely rolling out a new product before putting it through its paces can spell disaster. PolyScience president Philip Preston knows this well and utilizes this strategy carefully before unveiling any product, such as their new low temperature chillers, to the industry.

“When we release new products, we do a very, very careful release of new products… we’re not General Motors saying on this date we’re going to release the new car,” says Preston. “We will tend to get products out to very select customers for a fairly long period of time of validation to see if anything can be caught that could happen that’s outside of our own engineering department. You know, there’s nothing, no substitute for real-world testing on things.”

If one of their prototypes doesn’t live up to their high expectations, then it’s back to the drawing board for the engineering team before releasing the next iteration of the product.

Like General Motors, however, PolyScience battle-hardens its equipment by using it like crash test dummies, sending every new product off to be drop tested. Drop-tested means exactly that: dropped, smashed, tipped over, and beat to hell to make sure their products can actually take a beating.

There’s nothing better than real-world testing, and this is exactly why PolyScience relies on cannabis industry leaders like Summit Research, a company that specializes in cannabis extraction, to serve as the company’s “crash test dummies,” as Preston jokes. Summit CEO Elliot Kremerman makes sure that PolyScience products are vigorously tested and subject to their “abuse,” as he characterizes it, so they can provide worst-case scenarios back to the PolyScience engineering team. Summit uses PolyScience chillers as part of their extraction process and require very low temperatures for high efficiency and quality end products. Summit relies on the specialty products from PolyScience, and PolyScience relies on Summit’s honest critiques of its designs.

It is not until they have received feedback from companies like Summit, and when PolyScience’s team of engineers have fully examined how their products interface and serve the client, are they ready to release a new product into the cannabis industry or any other industry.

“By the time we’ve done a full roll-out on a product, we have complete confidence because that roll-out of a new product could kill your quality (and) reputation,” says Preston. “Even if you have done everything possible to take the corrective actions, you’ve got to go at this in an extremely cautious way.”

When your company makes highly specialized machines like PolyScience does, the hasty release of a new product can be disastrous. If all of the kinks have not been worked out and it has not been “battle-tested,” then more than just dollars can be lost; a company’s reputation and years of building up customer goodwill can be compromised, and possibly never regained. By working with partners such as Summit, PolyScience’s clients can be assured the products they purchase are tested and true.