Product Prototyping – 3D Printing, CNC Machining & Plastic Injection Molding

Product Prototyping – 3D Printing, CNC Machining & Plastic Injection Molding

Prototype development of your conceived product is vital. A product prototype is the first physical form of an imagined product idea. It enables the inventor to actually touch and feel the perceived product. It also allows the inventor to perform various tests and make necessary changes to make the final product better. Not to forget, a product prototype is a proof of concept, enabling the inventor to pitch to potential stakeholders about the conceived product and attract more funds for the mass production.

When it comes to product prototype development, it is helpful to consider the various tools available and the different processes used for making different parts of a conceived product. Product prototype development can be carried out using one of the following three methods: 3D printing (additive manufacturing), CNC machining (subtractive manufacturing), and plastic injection molding.

3D Printing

3D printing or additive manufacturing is one of the rapid prototyping techniques that constructs 3D objects by successively depositing material in layers such that it becomes a predefined shape. In the past few years, contemporary 3D printing has been very successful for rapid prototype development, but it is gradually starting to make its impact on the product manufacturing realm as well.

CNC Machining

CNC machining or subtractive manufacturing is a technique that constructs 3D objects by successively cutting away the material from a block of solid material. Typically, a CNC machine is employed in order to cut away the material and give a definite shape. Modern CNC machines utilize several tools and cut at three axes to nine axes such that they minimize the need for operators to flip the block. One of the cardinal benefits of CNC machining is the ability to construct predefined metal parts swiftly and accurately. 3D printing, in the case of metal, does construct parts accurately, but it is relatively slower than CNC machining. Therefore, for those product prototypes that require both plastic and metal parts, it is useful to use 3D printing for plastic parts and CNC machining for metal parts.

Plastic Injection Molding

Plastic injection molding is a popular technique that constructs an object by injecting the material, with high pressure, into a mold. Once the product design engineers finalize the product design, definitive molds are made from either steel or aluminum, which are then fitted on the injection molding machine. The material is then fed into the machine, which passes through the mold and ejects as the predefined shape.

Which Method Should You Employ?

Each method is better suited for different situations. For instance, suppose you want to build a single product prototype just to get the feel of your conceived idea, run basic tests, and/or prove your concept to potential stakeholders. In such a case, if it is all plastic, you can employ 3D printing. If it is all metal, you can employ CNC machining. If it is an amalgamation of both plastic and metal, then you can employ 3D printing to produce plastic parts and CNC machining to produce metal parts. You can then assemble the plastic and metal parts to form the prototype and do whatever you wish to do with the prototype.

Now, suppose you want to create several identical product prototypes, which contain both plastic and metal parts, for consumer testing and market research. In such a case, you will need to employ plastic injection molding for plastic parts and CNC machining for metal parts. Plastic injection molding enables you to produce a moderate quantity of parts quite swiftly and economically. Once you have both the plastic and metal parts, you can assemble them to form several identical prototypes, which you can use for consumer testing and market research.

Despite the popular methods available, product prototype development can be tough, especially if you do not have a definitive product design for your conceived product. Besides, testing product prototypes and making them better are also some of the difficult challenges, which you may not be able to face it on your own. For that reason, it is sensible to partner with a product development company that employs different rapid prototyping techniques, including 3D printing, CNC machining, and plastic injection molding.

GID Development Corporation is a leading product design and product development company in the US. They offer quick and economical product design, rapid prototyping, product development, and other product fulfillment services to inventors in the US as well as across the globe. When it comes to product prototype development, experienced industrial engineers at GID Development Corporation first utilize the 3DEXPERIENCE platform from Dassault Systèmes, which includes tools like CATIA V6, 3DVIA, BIOVIA, SOLIDWORKS, etc., to create and test product designs virtually. After achieving a definitive product design, the skilled industrial engineers employ 3D printing, CNC machining, plastic injection molding, or a combination of these methods to produce accurate product prototypes. The engineers at GID Development Corporation also have the experience and in-depth knowledge that help them test the prototype and make it better.

So if you need help with product prototype development, just contact GID Development Corporation. Whether it is a simple prototype development, like for sports products, or an intricate prototype development, like for complex electromechanical products or medical products, GID Development Corporation will “GET IT DONE!”

To learn more about the leading product design and product prototype development company in the US, GID Development Corporation.

Have any queries regarding product prototyping? Just call Jim Grimes at 714-323-1052 between 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM PST, for a 15-minute FREE telephonic conference. He will answer to various questions regarding rapid prototyping, 3D printing, CNC machining, and plastic injection molding.

Medical Device Product with Embedded Software – Important Things to Know

Medical Device Product with Embedded Software – Important Things to Know

Developing a medical device product is always a challenging, time-consuming, and an arduous task. However, developing a medical device product that includes software (products with embedded software), is even a more demanding task. Today’s medical device products with embedded software are able to save lives, but there is still room for more innovative medical device products. Getting a new, innovative medical device product with embedded software into the market is certainly very lucrative, but more importantly, a revolutionary medical product can change the face of the healthcare industry by providing better healthcare treatments and services.

If you have a ground-breaking idea for a new medical device product with embedded software, then you should definitely consider bringing it to life. If you proceed carefully, you will certainly achieve success with your conceived product. Before you start with the medical device development, however, you should know about the four important things.

Is it really a medical device?

Before you initiate the medical product development, you need to first determine whether your conceived product will be considered a medical device or not. As per the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), “Medical devices range from simple tongue depressors and bedpans to complex programmable pacemakers with micro-chip technology and laser surgical devices [sic].” Therefore, a simple tongue depressor or a very complex CAT (Computerized Axial Tomography) scanner is a medical device, rather a medical device with embedded software in the latter case, but an activity tracker, like Fitbit’s wristband, is not a medical device. For that reason, it is vital to first find out how your conceived product will be classified. You need to know whether your conceived product can cause any harm. You also need to find out whether there are any safety risks involved.

If you are developing a medical device product with embedded software, knowing how your product will be classified will certainly have a major impact on the product development process, affecting factors such as assessing the development costs and timeline, creating the documents required for FDA approval, and testing the product.

Is your project scope defined accurately?

If you do not know the limits of the complexity of the project, software needs, and the security requirements, you may totally underrate or overrate the product development efforts required. Will your medical device need complex mechanical components to function, or does it need to upload data to the servers to process and generate reports?

When you are trying to ascertain the complexity of your project, think about how many components the conceived medical device product might have. This will help define the timeline and cost of the project. Also, for the software part, you will need to get a clean user interface, which is easy to understand; hence, spend some time understanding the interface part. When defining the scope, be sure to take into account the complexity of the user interface development.

Modern, complex medical device products with embedded software are often backed by mobile applications, which control the medical devices through smartphones and tablets. If your conceived product needs mobile apps, clearly define it in your scope.

Do you have any plan for the maintenance?

What is your plan for maintaining the software aspect of your conceived medical product? The FDA in its guidelines includes the corrective and preventive maintenance of the software. Having a plan for the maintenance will factor toward the development efforts and the long-term success of your product. If the new version of the OS (operating system) releases, how the software of your product will be updated? Will the update affect the functionality of your product? Will it improve the performance and fix software bugs if there are any?

For medical product development, creating a plan around such questions is vitally important.

Do you need a product development partner?

Medical device product development is no easy task, and if any step is missed, it could result in costly delays. Everything needs to be perfect when it comes to medical product development. Having a reliable product development partner will make a big difference and prove to be in your best interest.

Have a complex product idea in mind, like a medical device product with embedded software? Want to bring your idea to life? Get in touch with vastly experienced industrial engineers at GID Development Corporation.

GID Development Corporation is one of the top product development companies in the US. They provide agile and economical product design, rapid prototyping, and product development services to inventors throughout the US and across the globe. Utilizing their vast experience and technology like 3DEXPERIENCE Platform, which features BIOVIA, CATIA V6, SIMULIA, etc., the skilled industrial engineers at GID Development Corporation can help design, prototype, and develop medical device products with embedded software, electromechanical products, sports products, and all sorts of complex products.

So no matter how simple or complex your product idea is, GID Development Corporation will bring it to life. To learn more about the leading product development company in the US, GID Development Corporation, visit https://www.gidcompany.com/.

Have any questions regarding medical device product development? Call Jim Grimes at 714-323-1052 between 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM PST, for a 15-minute FREE telephonic conference. He will answer to various questions regarding medical device product development.

Why You Should Partner with a Good Product Design Company?

Why You Should Partner with a Good Product Design Company

The art of product designing needs the skill of designing a product (just from a concept) that is beneficial to the inventor as well as the intended consumers. Product design is certainly not an easy task. It requires many skills as well as computer knowledge and, most importantly, creativity. Not everyone is skilled enough with the aesthetics – right? Besides, you also have to be knowledgeable about different software applications, especially CAD (computer-aided design), CAM (computer-aided manufacturing), CAE (computer-aided engineering) software applications. It will definitely be in your best interest to team up with a reputable product design company to take care of your product design needs.

Here are some logical reasons why you should consider partnering with a good product design company:

A Descent Product Design Does Wonders

A few years back, the importance of a decent product design usually went unnoticed, but times have changed. Today, whether it is a simple, economical product or a complex, expensive product, its product design barely goes unnoticed. Professional product design engineers help create conclusive product designs that meet their inventor’s vision. They ensure that the product design is exactly the way the inventor envisioned and also make sure to take care of the aesthetics and ergonomics aspects so that the intended consumers like it.

Consumers do not like to waste time searching for the perfect product. For that reason, creating a good product design that can capture their attention and incite them to buy the product is necessary. Product design also factors toward the cost and manufacturability of the conceived product. Therefore, compelling product design is vital, and to get such a product design, it is necessary to rely on experienced professionals of a reputable product design company.

Product Design Experience and Computer Skills

Product design engineers have years of experience. Designing an effective product requires a vast knowledge in the field of engineering, art, and marketing. Expertise in using CAD/CAM/CAE software applications is also necessary. Where would you find someone who has considerable product design experience and thorough competency in using specialized software applications? It is rare you will find someone so capable somewhere other than a leading product design company.

Makes All the Things Easier

Ask yourself these questions:

  1. Do I have enough time to carry out all the research?
  2. Can I create detailed designs of the conceived product?
  3. Am I capable of creating a product prototype on my own?
  4. Am I qualified to determine the product material and estimate costs?
  5. Can I evaluate the product safety and figure out how well the conceived product can do in the market?
  6. Can I mass-produce the conceived product?

If the answer to these questions is “No,” then you should definitely partner with an experienced product design company. A product design company has experienced and skilled engineers who can perform a wide variety of tasks, from research to mass manufacturing. They are thoroughly aware of each product development stage and will handle it for you.

Other Valuable Services

A leading product design company will take care of everything. Such a company will help you not only with product design and product development. It will assist you in moving your conceived product from the point of manufacture through warehousing, distribution, and delivery to potential consumers. It will also take care of the IT stuff, like creating and setting up a website for your product. Overall, a product design company will help you bring your idea to life and take it to the intended consumers so that you can start making a profit.

Are you searching for a good product design company in California? GID Development Corporation is one of the leading product design companies in the US, and it provides A-to-Z product development services. Ranging from swift product design to rapid prototyping, and economical product development to agile product fulfillment, GID Development Corporation is the BEST partner inventors can get.

GID Development Corporation is led by very skilled industrial engineers who have many years of experience in product design, product prototyping, and product development. Utilizing cutting-edge 3DEXPERIENCE Platform from DS (Dassault Systèmes), which includes CATIA V6, 3DVIA, SOLIDWORKS and other apps, GID Development Corporation can help you create electromechanical products, medical products, sports products, products with embedded software, and all sorts of complex products.

To learn more about the leading product design company in California, GID Development Corporation, visit https://www.gidcompany.com/.

Have any questions regarding product design? Call Jim Grimes at 714-323-1052 between 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM PST, for a 15-minute FREE telephonic conference. He will answer to various questions regarding product design and product development.

Types of Engineers – Who Can Help Develop Electromechanical Products?

Types of Engineers Who Can Help Develop Electromechanical Products

Types of Engineers: It is a fact that developing an electromechanical product can be a highly-intellectual, time-consuming, and expensive task. Even if the time and money are not the barriers, the technical know-how and skill is something that, you as an inventor may not have to create your idea. For that reason, if you want to develop an amazing electromechanical product, you need to partner with professional engineers who specialize in multiple fields of engineering.

Because it is electromechanical product development, you will need to team with experts who have the knowledge in different fields of engineering. Approaching a reputable product development company that has engineers, specializing in different fields of engineering, may prove to be in your best interest after all.

In this blog, we will shed light on different types of engineers who can help you develop electromechanical products.

Product Design Engineers

Even if you have the product design for your electromechanical product, you may need to team up with skilled product design engineers. Product design engineers deal with creating viable product designs that are actually feasible and economical to manufacture.

Product design engineers also look after the aesthetic and ergonomic aspects of the conceived products. Usually, product design engineers utilize computer applications like CATIA V6, SOLIDWORKS, 3DVIA, etc. to create definitive product designs, but sometimes, they may rely on their manual drafting skills.

In order to ensure that the design of your conceived product is impeccable in every aspect, you need to partner with experienced product design engineers.

Electrical Engineers

An electromechanical product does have many electronic components, and for that reason, you need to team up with electrical engineers. The field of electrical engineering, however, is a very broad field, so you need to partner with the right electrical engineers.

For instance, if your electromechanical product consists a high-voltage system, you need to seek out for engineers, specializing in power engineering. If it consists, electronic circuits, you need to rely on engineers, specializing in electronic engineering. Likewise, there are electrical engineers specializing in control engineering, microelectronics engineering, instrumentation engineering, and so on.

Based on the nature of your electromechanical product, you may need to team up with engineers, specializing in the different fields of electrical engineering.

Mechanical Engineers

An electromechanical product will obviously have the moving mechanical parts. In order to design and develop the mechanical parts, you will need to rely on mechanical engineers. However, just like electrical engineering, mechanical engineering is a broad field.

Mechanical engineers may specialize in different disciplines of mechanical engineering, like mechanics, biomechanics, mechatronics and robotics, thermodynamics and thermos-science, structural analysis, technical drawing, CNC, etc.

As per the nature of your conceived product, you may need to partner with mechanical engineers, specializing in different disciplines of mechanical engineering.

Manufacturing Engineers

Manufacturing engineers deal with employing the appropriate manufacturing practices. Their main focus is to select the right raw material and turn that material into a new product in the most efficient, effective, and economical way.

Manufacturing engineering is also a pretty broad field, and manufacturing engineers may specialize in subfields, such as plastic product manufacturing, lean manufacturing, CNC (computer numerically controlled) manufacturing, and additive manufacturing (3D printing) to name a few.

Again, based on the nature of your conceived electromechanical product, you may need to select the right engineers who are better suited for the job.

Software Engineers

Sometimes, electromechanical products may require software to perform various functions. To design and develop the software, you may need to rely on software engineers.

Software engineers may specialize in different disciplines, but when it comes to the development of products that rely on software to function, you will have to work with engineers who specialize in embedded software programming.

Embedded software applications control the machines and only those engineers who know embedded programming can develop such software applications. So, if your electromechanical product needs software to function, you will need to hire skilled software engineers.

Industrial Engineers

Industrial engineers monitor the entire process of electromechanical product development, right from product design and product prototype development phases to product manufacturing and product fulfillment phases.

Industrial engineers ensure to minimize the waste of time, money, energy, materials, labor, machine time, and other resources that do not generate any value.

Whether it is the development of electromechanical products, medical device products, products with embedded software, or any complex products, having an industrial engineer on board always proves to be very beneficial.

The above-mentioned engineers are just some of the common types of engineers who will help you develop electromechanical products. Searching for each type of engineer and teaming them with each other to work on your electromechanical product can be a very difficult task. Partnering with a reputable product development company instead, that has a collaborative team of engineers, can prove to be very beneficial. You will be able to realize your conceived electromechanical product while saving substantially on time, money, and effort.

Want to bring your complex product ideas to life? No matter how challenging and resource-demanding your product ideas are, GID Development Corporation will help you realize them. A leading product development company in the US, GID Development Corporation provides swift, agile, and economical product design, rapid product prototyping, and product development services. They have vast experience in developing complex products, like electromechanical products, medical device products, mechanical products, products with embedded software, and so on. Utilizing state-of-the-art technologies, like the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform from Dassault Systèmes, experienced engineers at GID Development Corporation ensure to bring your product ideas to life.

Have any queries regarding electromechanical product development? Just call Jim Grimes at 714-323-1052 between 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM PST, for a 15-minute FREE telephonic conference. He will answer to various product development questions relating to electromechanical products or any other complex products.