Symbiote Night Vision & Thermal Bridge

• November 22, 2024
• By Jared Daub

Symbiote Night Vision & Thermal Bridge

The Symbiote Night Vision & Thermal Bridge is not “just another bridge”. It is far more than that. It is our commitment to ensuring that you are equipped with lifesaving gear; Gear that assists you in creating safeguards against tyranny. Defiant freedom is more than what gear you own, it is a commitment to liberty, and the pursuit of defending it.

If you want it done right…

I think the old saying “If you want something done, you have to do it yourself” rings very true in this situation. Arkayne Co began with a simple beginning, working to educate and equip our citizens. We began with cutting edge thermal and NV gear and began to expand from there. Quickly, our company became known for our education and expertise in what we coined as “dual band systems”. This is marrying a thermal monocular to your helmet alongside NV of some flavor. While this had been done in the past, we were pivotal in making this mainstream. And along the way we became one of the larger players in this space. We have equipped thousands of citizens with lifesaving gear. We are honored to be a part of that journey.

“What we wanted was simple in concept: ONE bridge ordered ONE way that would solve ALL issues seen previously with dual band systems.”

Soon into our growth, we hit periods of rocky roads. Suppliers couldn’t keep up with our demand for bridges. Further, quality bridges on the market were far and few between. At the time, we didn’t necessarily even know what made a perfected bridge. Frankly, we were newer to the units that were becoming available, and the technology was changing at a crazy pace. Just keeping up with the onslaught of new options made this all very difficult. The more we tested new optics, the more we realized: The bridges on the market were not up to the task.

Gatekeeping and ignoring feedback

The defense industry is littered with companies who solely chase government contracts. Such is the case with quality, highly adjustable bridges. For years they were basically unobtainium. Frankly, they didn’t warrant the price tag, either. Even the most elite bridges failed to properly align ALL options on the market. Naturally, through this discovery, we continued to build strong relationships with our suppliers. The first thing we did was pitch ideas and give feedback. We spent months communicating with our suppliers and hoping someone would come to the table, ready to listen. Well, I think you can probably already tell how that went. If they would have listened, we would have bolstered THEIR product. Instead, nobody wanted to hear what we wanted.

What we wanted was simple: ONE bridge ordered ONE way that would solve ALL issues seen previously with dual band systems.

Rolling up our sleeves

[Our first symbiote 3D designs are shown above]

What do you do when you are faced with a challenge? We saw only two options: first, we could continue offering bridges we felt were inferior and lacked adaptability. That was certainly the “easier” option. Just live and let live, move along, stay in our lane, and work with the hand we were dealt. But we didn’t BELIEVE in the products! How could we just sit back when every time a customer needed a symbiotic bridge, we knew they would never achieve it? The second option was the long, painful, hard route: Build it ourselves.

That kicked off one of the most painful, slow, and tedious journeys we have been on to date. But I’m excited to share it with you. It brought us to the Symbiote Night Vision and Thermal Bridge.

“Hey Jared. Break this.” He said.

Over a decade in knowledge, 1 year in development

Ethan has been the driver of the evaluation process of thermal and night vision units. He has spent well over a decade perfecting the craft of hunting in the darkness. The other team mates spend time driving, shooting, hiking, and navigating in the darkness. We spent YEARS hunting the perfect units, understanding performance, and building skillsets with this equipment. We may not be “operators”, but we certainly know how to operate in the darkness. Applying the knowledge to the production of this bridge from scratch was far from pretty. There were moments of intense satisfaction, small glimmers of hope. But then, we’d break another bridge, we’d tweak another setting, we’d fix some sort of fitment issue. Then, we’d find another problem to perfect, and the cycle continued for a year.

One dovetail fit, another didn’t. One unit worked well, another didn’t. We had a really solid initial concept in April of 2024, a physical unit that was put onto helmets for testing. The best way to describe it is to think of it like the first time you started getting into shape. Maybe you hit the gym twice a week and results showed immediately. But then into month 2, 3, 4, they slowed. You still may be making progress, but it might not show up as dramatically day-to-day. Only when you look back at the original “you”, do you see the drastic change. The Symbiote is exactly the same.

[First prints, first material, and first test fits shown above. It wasn’t pretty, but it was the beginning]

Suffering for perfection

Like all things that are worthwhile, the suffering is refining. Did we want a solution fast? Yes! But were we willing to sacrifice ANY functionality? Absolutely not. And I think that’s the crime of the current bridges on the market: They are not manufactured by people obsessively using this gear. Look, I’m not trying to just beat up on people we built friendships with. There are lots of good people in this space. But not everyone will spend the money and time that we did to understand all the options on the market. Frankly, you have to be mildly insane to do it. Maybe we fit that bill. You can decide.

We knew that there was a non-negotiable: This bridge MUST have X,Y, & Z adjustability AND articulation. We nailed that over the last year.

Ethan and Austin engaged in a cat and mouse game of changes and tests. Austin would invent and dial in, Ethan would relentlessly try to find faults. The two of them working endlessly to find a perfect balance of form, function and strength led us to this creation. Something worthy of mounting to your helmet, a product that will serve you for years to come.

Breaking it to prove it

We have a box of broken parts. We understand the distrust of 3D printed parts, so we knew that the orientations and materials HAD to be on point. There were no exceptions, this bridge had to be built for hard use. So we froze them, slammed them into doors, drove over them, threw them, and did every abusive test we could think of. At first, many didn’t make it. But it was data that was applied to making a better product overall. I can still remember the day Austin (Our Product Engineer) handed me a J-Arm in its nearly final design with our newest material.

“Hey Jared. Break this.” He said.

I tried as hard as I could. I stood on it, tried to bend it unsuccessfully. Eventually, I resorted to slamming it in the hinge of a security door at our building. It STILL did not break! I became a believer. I knew that we had nailed the material, and we were on a good path.

“That kicked off one of the most painful, slow, and tedious journeys we have been on to date. But I’m excited to share it with you. It brought us to the Symbiote Night Vision and Thermal Bridge.” 

Final Version, So T&E Began

We landed on our final printers and final material. We chose the PA12CF (A VERY Strong Carbon Fiber Reinforced Material, perfect for this application) because of its printability and strength, especially after the annealing process. This material is no freaking joke. It is lightweight, strong, and resistant to heat and cold fluctuations. But we knew that our opinion wouldn’t be enough. So a few months back we launched our official T&E program. We tapped industry experts, past customers, and other folks running this gear hard. Our request: run it hard, use it hard, and try to make it fail. We had AMAZING feedback, and then took that feedback and further refined the Symbiote. These testers filled out questionnaires and gave us no-nonsense responses that proved invaluable. Passing our own internal tests is one thing. Having the backing of dozens of individuals, who now willingly put their investment into the symbiote, proved the concept.

The symbiote was ready to launch. Sort of. Now all we had to do was make scalable systems, user manuals, BOM’s, processes, QC checklists, and built out a manufacturing suite. Easy, right?

Building something scalable

Designing the product is one thing. Making it possible to manufacture thousands is an entirely different beast. We perfected our print programs, dialed in our QC. Every bridge is spec’d, checked, and verified in all standard mounts prior to packaging. Each component goes through a secondary annealing process which further bonds the material together at a molecular level and stress relieves it. This is a product we build in house. Our team of experts leads this process and we own each step. This is to ensure the best quality and the highest consistency.

The symbiote is ready for your helmet. It will make you more capable. It will align your units properly, and it does so in a simple, easy to understand design.

Notable features of The Symbiote Night Vision & Thermal Bridge

The Symbiote Night Vision & Thermal Bridge interfaces with nearly every unit on the market. Include with each symbiote is everything you will need to get up and running. We do NOT make customers “Piece Meal” together their bridge. This means you do not have to navigate complex menus or options that make little sense. The pictures tell the whole story: You get a bridge that can be run in standard configuration or panoramic, and can adjust on all axes. No other company has done this like we have. This is its own design, its own artwork, something that the industry has needed for too long.

Included in the symbiote:

• Center Hub
• Sliders
• Standard Arms
• Panoramic Arms
• Left Dovetail receiver
• Right Dovetail receiver
• (2) J-Arms (ambidextrous)
• (One) Mini Rail Dovetail Adapter (For units like MH25, RH25, MUM 14’s, etc.)
• (One) Rix ST6 / AGM STING IR dovetail adapter
• Allen tools
• All necessary hardware for use
• (Note: Hard case is not included standard. It is shown for artistic purposes. The Symbiote ships in a plastic clamshell package.)

I sincerely hope I am accurately painting the picture of this process. This was a painstakingly slow, tedious process to get us to a bridge that we would be proud to call our own. And we did it. As a team in the heartland of Pennsylvania, we took the weight on our shoulders to bring this bridge to life. Because we know the value it will bring to you.

A new era of Arkayne Co

So although it was disappointing to be denied by our suppliers, it brought us to somewhere much better. It brought us to a place where we can help you become better with a product we KNOW will fix any issues you have already experienced. No longer do you need to run units that don’t align properly. The Symbiote gives you versatility, which makes you more formidable in the darkness. And this is only the beginning. The denials have lit a fire inside of us. We will take the lessons we learned from manufacturing in TA Targets, and we will apply them to this company. A relentless commitment to defiant freedom and building safeguards against tyranny. And we couldn’t do this without you. So…thank you.

If you want to learn more about the Symbiote or have questions, please email us at: cs@arkayne.com. We are always happy to assist any way we can.

Carpe Noctem.