The manufacturing yield for full mirror panels became completely unsustainable due to an incredibly high defect rate. Our original supplier initially faced a 30% failure rate, which continued to rise until the company refused to make them anymore. When we tried two alternative suppliers, the defect rate jumped to 80%. We then ordered samples from ten additional manufacturers, but every single one returned an 80% to 90% failure rate. Throwing out 39 out of every 40 manufactured panels is economically impossible, forcing us to pivot away from mirror panels.
The modular optical mirror, or mirror lip, is exactly one millimeter thick, which allows it to seamlessly overlap the front panel without adding awkward height or making the machine difficult to wipe down. Furthermore, because it is not permanently glued to the entire chassis, if a user accidentally cracks, scratches, or breaks the mirror lip, we can simply send a replacement part that the user can swap out themselves.