For a lot more details on the VIUD's design and testing process see our blog or our YouTube channel. You might also be interested in checking out the complete specifications of the VIUD.

Design and Testing

The VIUD started off with just an idea of building a custom USB drive case which quickly snowballed into the idea of seeing if I could build the world's toughest USB drive. Design and simple mechanical load testing were done in AutoCad and initial prototypes were made on my lathe with later prototypes being CNC machined.

Excessive testing was done on the design prototypes to identify weaknesses and improve on the VIUD's ruggedness. Some of these tests include:

• Temperature Tests:
• Boiling water test (100 °C, 212 °F)
• Oven heat test (204 °C, 400 °F)
• Wood fire heat test (550 °C, 1020 °F)
• Propane torch heat test (over 2000 °C, 3600 °F)
• Shock Tests:
• Throw tests
• Baseball bat
• Hammer
• Air gun testing up to 320 km/h (200 m/h) and 4000 Gs
• Water pressure tests up to 3000 PSI (20.7 MPa)
• Load testing up to 9 tons

After several years of testing, re-design, and more testing I'm finally satisfied with the VIUD design and being able to call it the world's toughest USB drive.

Assembly

There's a fair amount of work on the VIUD that is done prior to receiving your order:

• Touch up and fixing of any issues in the case parts
• Case polishing and cleaning
• Aluminum case anodizing
• Laser engraving
• USB coating (four coatings of two different materials)

Once we receive an order for your VIUD it is carefully hand assembled:

• Pre-testing of USB board
• Epoxy USB into in plug and magnet into cap
• Epoxy USB into the base and install plug
• Clean and polish finished VIUD
• Post-testing of USB board
• Shipping

Each epoxy stage requires at least 1 day to set so the typical assembly time of a VIUD from order to shipping is around 1 week.