The only thing I can think of that would expand the clip ring is to increase the strength of the clip arm. Maybe they realized that if you put some good leverage on the clip arm as if you were fighting the light off your pocket it had a chance of bending both the arm and the actual clip ring.
I agree it’s not very visually appealing compared to a flush ring but in my experience a mfg who increases the size of a metal component is doing so at their cost rather than to save cost. TK noted the additional strength of the new clip and I’m thinking that’s got to be due to the additional ring size?
It very well could have not involved any overt decision. Keep in mind that although it is easily noticeable in the picture, and I’m sure will be easy to feel, the growth Toykeeper measured is only 0.3mm (0.012”) per side - equivalent to the thickness of 6 sheets of paper.
If they’re sending out a CAD pattern to a vendor without tightly controlling the tolerance, the vendor may err on the side of providing too much material, especially with as thin as I expect the ring is. Or the supplier may have just ignored a specified tolerance.
Even in the US I’ve had suppliers miss or ignore tolerances they didn’t think were important.
Sofirn had trouble with the clip supplier for the C01, by the way.
Sorry, but the clip in black just still looks very bad to me. And if it’s not paint, I might not even be able to remove the color(?). Big meh for me.
And it’s not all about the color - a good portion also is about Lumintop’s attitude. This light is all about the design. And Lumintop seems to be like “yeah, let’s just slap whatever clip we have lying around onto that thing”. If that change really was an informed decision and they had the clips just produced for this specific light, the changes are just beyond me.
I am not a fan of the pimple extractor hole at the tip of the clip either, but at least that was already present in the initial 3D renderings.
I am glad to hear the rest works fine though. I just really wish the communication efforts by Lumintop were better and other than “it is fit”.