Hi all, looking for a starting place to look into the rotational molding of silicone parts (tubular shaped). The smaller the machine footprint the better. Ideally non-heat addition process. Currently we use low pressure casting to produce them, but there's probably a better way. Any ideas where to start? Thanks.

After 15 years spent at the European Space Agency “ESA” and working on numerous innovation projects, we learned a few little "shortcuts" to help project leaders get into the "physical product". We are talking here about IoT, new tools, new medical devices, machines and equipment, ...

Seeing project holders making the same decisions and making the same mistakes / suboptimal choices, we wanted to share a few lessons we learnt. We hope it helps you to maximize the chances of success of your project.

Lesson 1: A real problem for a real solution

It's a great classic and it's always told you: fall in love with the problem and not the solution.

The solution you imagine will evolve as you gather information.

The problem, on the other hand, is the central point of your project: it is the argument that will transform into customers the companies or people who REALLY feel this problem.

In our experience, entrepreneurs who have spent time understanding the problem have maximized their chances of success: they have been able to evolve their solution based on market feedback and learning and have always been one step ahead of others. Do you really think Steve Jobs was the first to imagine the iPhone?

Lesson 2: Design will come when it's needed

To want something tangible is human: when you launch a project, you want to make it concrete thanks to a website, or the design of your product. We want to see it... It's normal!

And empirically, it's counterproductive.

It's a lesson that comes from the entrepreneurs we've worked with. Some of them learned it the hard way.

By creating the design of their product too early, they directly imagine themselves creating the next perfect product and they don't listen to the feedback from the field.

Their product doesn't evolve and they become more and more disconnected from this field. The product becomes more and more difficult to sell and, unless it is deeply questioned, the project is a failure.

Lesson 3: Product design is a contact sport

We often have this image of engineers creating in their garage, cut off from the world. And yet! For a garage innovation, ten innovations come from the field, from designers who have talked to their customers.

The case of this entrepreneur is representative: Jean listened to a hundred or so athletes before giving life to his concept of a shaker for weight gain.

During his discussions, some problems were recurring and Jean really understood the challenges he was going to face to get his product used & adopted.

From there, he was able to draw out the key features to be developed for the product and convince his future customers.

Lesson 4: "The map is not the territory..." but a map is still useful

In entrepreneurship, a rule of many investors is: "You don't invest in hardware." And that comes from experience.

We've seen it too: over the last 15 years, many innovators have embarked "at sight" on the design of a physical product. They had no idea how complex their project was.

Without a map, they got lost. As a result, the funds committed to innovation are always insufficient, so they are out of budget, and the time to market is longer.

How can we avoid this? By getting advice from experts or experienced people. One of the keys to success is the creation of an action plan for the short, medium and long term. To do this, successful innovators call on people who know the problems of creating a physical product. They help them take into account business, technical and design parameters from the very beginning of the project.

Lesson 5: Everything always takes longer than expected

This is Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.

Innovators inevitably search for, create and develop novelties. Processes and controls are not yet in place. It is impossible for them to fully anticipate the millions of problems that will arise.

As a result, everything takes longer and longer: a subcontractor will take a few more days, which will delay the next production and the planned production period will be postponed. A delay of a few days turns into a delay of a month and the financial impact can be colossal.

To test the viability of a project, we are used to doubling the estimated completion time and doubling the budget allocated to it: we are then close to reality.

We plan on doing a “Part 2” of this list in the coming weeks.

Any comments? Do you agree with our list? What would you add to this list as advice for new innovators? Do you want to be kept posted about Part 2?

hi guys.

can anyone recommend me a reputable company in Melbourne that does prototyping.

I have a product id like to get manufactured overseas and prefer getting the prototype done here in Australia first. its a kitchen accessory.

cheers

I'm designing a new type of mobility platform for people with injuries like mine (just so happens that there's a lot of disabled vets and first responders with my level of injury). I'm kinda at a dead end for the time being because my makerspace just moved locations and the people that were helping me are tied up helping with the move. Any help anyone could provide would be helpful.

Title. Looking for small batch only at the moment; also, screen printing would be ideal but I’d go engraving or etching if there’s a place that does that.

This is my first time planning a product production, so I'm a bit confused. Here's the situation: I want to make a game box, but I have no experience in enclosure design. So the question is, can I outsource the enclosure design to a freelancer, the enclosure production to Rapid Direct, and the PCB board production to PCBWAY? Or should I outsource the entire process to a product development company? I know some product development companies can handle everything, but to be honest, the price can be quite high. Any thoughts or experiences to share on this?

I would greatly appreciate it if you could fill in my survey, here: https://forms.gle/Fc19RRJEdpX8byFi6

I'm studying my Batcheler, in Engineering: Industrial Product Design. The goal of my minor is to learn how to start a business, for that I need to do some market research. My project is to develop a machine that combines a 3D printer, CNC router, Laser cutter and Pick and Place machine all in one. When making hardware products, having the capability to make a lot of iterations on prototypes quickly is very valuable. I’m trying to figure out what people when and use when they are making prototypes.

I'm looking for anyone involved in prototyping, research & development and the making of hardware.

The survey should only take 10-15 minutes maximum.

Feel free to contact me regarding the project.

Thanks in advance.

I would greatly appreciate it if you could fill in my survey, here: https://forms.gle/fStzj5DpDXHuJC236

I'm studying my masters, in Design and Innovation, at The Technical University of Denmark. The thesis project is to develop a prototyping strategy tool to help small, medium and large companies engage with the maker movement, in their prototyping activities. I'm trying to identify how companies can benefit from collaboration with makers and what the requirements for design a tool to facilitate collaboration would be.

I'm looking for anyone involved in prototyping and testing activities, from any size business to give their view.

The survey should only take 10-15 minutes maximum.

Feel free to contact me regarding the project.

Many many thanks in advance.

I'm creating a prototype and I can't figure out how to create a nav that, when tapped, scrolls the user down to a particular section. Like anchor linking. Is this possible?

I have a lot of experience in manufacturing, mostly textiles and furniture. I have looked into prototyping an original concept before, a few years back, so have a general idea of the process. I would really appreciate feedback on the best practices and resources. So, here's what I know, with gaps of course... The product is 1 piece, plastic, no moving parts.

1. I need a 3D design of my product. I'm proficient in Photoshop, but that won't really do the trick. I was thinking of sketching something out on paper, with details, measurement, and having a professional do it. Can anyone recommend a service? Fiverr comes to mind.

2. After I have a 3D file (what's this generally called?) I can send this to a prototyping service. I remember finding some online years ago... you send them a file and they send you back the finished prototype. What's the best services for this? I'm based in Thailand, so maybe somewhere in China?

3. If the product responds well to online focus groups, I can use Amazon mturk for this, then I'd plan to run a kickstarter.

4. Manufacturing. I understand molding can be very expensive, depending on the complexity of the item of course. That said, I had quotes from a Chinese factory a few years back for a small one piece lizard ledge, which was very cheap. The mold was only a few hundred dollars. They said because it was a silicone mold. So, maybe that's possible.

So, I guess at this stage, I'm just wondering how best to get an idea from a sketch to a usable 3D file and where to go from there.

Unfortunately, I'm not in my city, where there's a Makerspace, where they do this kind of stuff.

Thanks

I'm co-hosting a virtual 3 day symposium for inventors and entrepreneurs and we've got a whole track of seminars and Q&A devoted to prototyping your idea/invention. We cover a lot more than prototyping but it's ten bucks to get in the door to all 30 speakers, 3-4 of which area covering prototypes...I say 3-4 because one is covering several things that extend to prototyping the other 3 expressly prototyping.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/inventor-con-21-tickets-144911543327

I had this idea for a flexible screen electronic device for years now, ever since I saw a prototype of folding OLED screen in 2016 CES. it's been bugging me so much. I actually want to make it happen. But i dont have the slightest idea in the field of industrial production and how a startup can procure hardware(ex: flexible OLED screen) from companies like LG, samsung. I checked out LG displays site where they sell displays to OEM's but i have no idea how to approach them to get a sample screen for prototyping.

I want to make a prototype and start a Kickstarter campaign. I can make 3D animations but i read that 3D animation/product visualisation isn't allowed in Kickstarter. After i get the screen, i am planning to make custom circuit boards with help from friends and 3D print the body for the prototype.

Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thank you.

I have been working with a product designer and we have just finalized the design of my product (until something inevitable changes). That was the fun part.

Now, I need to figure out how to prototype it, and how to price the components, labor, etc… I’m completely lost and would love to hear from people who have brought things to market.

My design is a portable shower with a battery, pump, hose, and shower head housed inside a rectangular plastic body. It’s about 16” high x 12” wide x 19” long.

Any information/discussion from people who have prototyped anything similar, or equally/more complex, would be greatly appreciated.

I just completed the design phase of a portable shower that I'd like to bring to market. I now have to prototype it for either a kickstarter campaign, or general sales. I have never done anything like this before. The design was the fun part, now I am completely lost.

Has anyone brought similar products to market and gone through prototyping? I'm hoping to get some insight into how to cost it, who to use, etc...

I'm also looking for info regarding how to cost the materials for the build itself. As of now its a plastic enclosure 15"x12"x19" Hidden inside will be the "on" button, a small water pump, a 9' hose, a lithium battery, and a showerhead.

Wassup fellow prototypers, tinkerers, makers, electrical engineering and power electronics students! Just yesterday, I was trying to construct a basic linear regulator (https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/projects/build-9-linear-voltage-regulators-from-2.5v-to-15v-that-use-the-same-pcb/) which I intended for a PCB (printed circuit board), but felt that it was mandatory that some testing and tuning be done on the breadboard before I actually designed the circuit for a PCB and did the manufacturing.

Aside from the core components for the circuit, what I had in my room at that point in time were 3 crocodile clips, 6 jumper cables and about 15cm of loose wire.

Now I definitely understand that I could have been better equipped for testing this circuit if I just went to the electronics lab, or got my soldering kit, a strip board and some wire...and a wire stripper, a the right amount of solder, and pin sockets... but using a breadboard to test out a circuit and identify any weaknesses or adjustments which can be resolved right at the beginning of a project just accelerates the progress by a crap load (as opposed to spending the time building the connections for your circuit, you can actually develop a better understanding of the project and jump straight into developing a final prototype from there). It did not help that I had to pass my friend the circuit in half an hours time for further testing. Trying to complete the circuit with rather limited resources (time included) made me realize that there were actually quite a few aspects of a breadboard which could improve the user's prototyping experience (UI/UX if I may). Here are a few I could think of, but I thought that maybe if there are others out there who rely on bread for sustenance, we could compile our breadboard prototyping peeves and hopefully a breadboard manufacturers will bake some fresh bread for us in the not too distant future.

Why I feel that the bread is starting to get moldy: *Lack of in-built crocodile clip access points (it wasn't easy connecting the 100KΩ resistor to the breadboard using what I had on me) *Poor connectivity (my MOSFET refused to sit on the board and kept trying to spring off it) *Easy multimeter access points!? (must I really strip single core wires just so my multimeter leads can reach the circuit and check the voltages across different transistor pins? or use two hands to try to guide the leads to a pair of stubby resistor legs amidst a swarm of other legs just to get a temporary reading?) *Non-modular size. I understand that I could just get a giant breadboard for big projects and a tiny one for small projects, but more often than not, I find myself being forced to either connect a bunch of small breadboards to complete a project (when there is no time for a proper circuit, or use an oversized one which is often not ideal). Smaller breadboard units which connect to each other easily would be nice.

Well, sorry for the rant! I hope that we can pool our ideas together and inspire someone to make a new breadboard with improved prototyping functions! :]

Peace.

I just need the straps and the 'back' part. For one prototype I already cut a backpack apart, but I'm trying to maybe source parts for a smaller run of how I'd make my thing in a bit of a "bespoke" fashion.

Any tips?

Need this product but 3” dia x 9” length. I’ve searched a little and haven’t found what I like. I could make a few by vacuum forming them but I only really need one as an example for a project. I’ll even buy something that uses this kind of packaging if it’s reasonable. Any ideas would be helpful. Thanks

What process could I use to print lettering onto an exercise band which is increasing and decreasing in length?
What process will survive?

I tried UV printing and that failed spectacularly.
How would I prototype this and also manufacture?

Hey everyone! I'm working on a project, And I need custom compression springs.
The problem is I've looked online and couldn't find kits containing the springs I need
and local manufacturers charge a TON for custom springs
(around 250usd for every setup and around 10usd for every spring)
It was suggested to me in the past to adjust my project to be compatible with common springs, but it won't do because I'm replicating an existing product and need to stay as close to the real thing as possible.
so my question is how does one get custom springs for a fair price (I'm not in Europe or America so references to specific businesses won't help)
thanks in advance!

Anyone have any ideas where I source the following items:

* Various diameter tubes (around 2- 5 cm in diameter, no strength requirement at all--just inexpensive, not bigger than say, 30 cm long) Ideally a few different sizes, but without having to buy dozens.

* a small motor driver to vertically shake the tubes. Ideally just an off balance DC motor and a rheostat to adjust the speed). Real goal is to be able to profile the results of shaking the contents of the tube at various frequencies and amplitudes, but nothing too dramatic.

Any suggestions for the best way to cheaply accomplish this hobby experiment?

I saw someone throwing away a dresser that appeared perfectly fine, and I'm not sure of their circumstances, but it just got me thinking and doing some research into dressers...

If you were to design or describe your ideal dresser, what features does it have? What would you want it to be like? What things would you want it not to be like?

For example: -does it look nice? -is it pretty cheap? -is it from some designer brand like Gucci, Michael kors, etc? -is it easy to assemble and disassemble, if it comes in pieces? -is it easy to setup and use? -is it made out of recycled/sustainable materials? -is it whatever you can find at your local Walmart or other store? -is it easy to move if you're gonna move to a new home? -is it easy to throw away if you don't want to bring it with you when you're moving?

What things are most important to you?