Since 2018 I have been trying to produce Roman candles in a classic design.
Some people may still remember the old Roman candles made in Germany, e.g. by Silberhütte - the delay here was not a fuse, but a pressed gold rain between each shot.
Later, however, this design was replaced by a different design for Chinese imports, with a delay using a fuse and a separating layer of sawdust between each shot, which is much cheaper to produce, as the sawdust is not compressed to the same extent, and is of course also much cheaper than the gold rain set.
In addition, typical Chinese Roman candles are filled in a bundle with a matrix, and the stars / sawdust are then pressed down with a large tool for the entire bundle at once. The Roman candles shown here, however, are much more complex, as in addition to the gold rain set, a cardboard disc is pressed into the sleeve for each shot to enable better pressure build-up; this is done entirely by hand for each individual Roman candle, as is the pressing of the delay set.
This makes production extremely slow and expensive compared to the production method with fuse, which is why no one in China is willing to produce the Roman candles in this way anymore.
Accordingly, from 2018 to 2020 I was unable to find a factory that was ultimately willing to produce the whole thing for us. Although 2 factories successfully made samples according to my technical specifications, after they realized how much effort the whole thing meant, they were not willing to actually produce the whole thing.
It was only in August 2020, during the summer stop of fireworks production in Hunan and Jiangxi, that I decided to spend my vacation in Guangxi province and look at fireworks factories there, since I could not leave China and later re-enter it due to Corona, and thus had to stay in China. I was immediately impressed by how many traditional, technically better production methods there were in the past, but at the same time I was sobered by how much of the fireworks industry there has now disappeared due to the higher costs of such products.
Nevertheless, I finally managed to find a factory here that is still willing to produce the Roman candles in the classic style. Unfortunately, the factory first had to get a new license, then find new workers because of the long period without production, and then production took forever because a worker can only produce around 9-10 bundles of Roman candles per day, since each Roman candle has to be filled with an ejection charge and star, then a cardboard disc is inserted by hand, which is pressed down by hand with a metal pin, then the gold rain set is filled in, which is also pressed down with a metal pin with 2-3 strong pushes - and the whole process is repeated 8 times per Roman candle.
The result, however, is a product that is definitely one of my absolute favorite items from our range so far. The cardboard discs allow for a much better pressure build-up, and all shots, from the first to the last shot, usually reach a good height with a powerful launch. The golden rain phase between each shot simply gives the article a certain charm that is completely lacking in modern Roman candles.
In addition, there is very careful workmanship, including in the labeling, and a design that I think is one of our best to date - I have taken the dummies off the shelf in the office countless times and just looked at them again and again.
The only thing that is not so stable is the timing between the shots, as the delay set is pressed by hand, and so sometimes cracks due to the high pressure of the launches and burns off more quickly, or only catches fire weakly and burns off more slowly.
In addition, the colors of the stars still need improvement, as most factories in Guangxi work better and more carefully in terms of technology, but the formulas for the effects are mostly at the level of 20 years ago. Here I will try to make changes step by step in the future to achieve even better results
