informal

?? Pro tip: Design with Ingress Protection (IP) ratings in mind! ?? You cannot easily make something waterproof later. ?? Luckily, the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) has developed IP ratings, which grade the resistance of an enclosure against the intrusion of dust or liquids. The ratings are widely used throughout industry. ?Save this chart ?? for future use!

? There are so many variables that go into deciding which manufacturing method is best for your product. ? The material, geometry, ideal cost, and speed, for instance, can determine if a particular method will work or not. ? With this in mind, we created the informal #MFG database to help! Plug in your variables and see which method is best for you :) https://www.mfgdb.com/

???Pro tip: Design with your final manufacturing method in mind, instead of designing for rapid prototyping methods. ???You can #3Dprint nearly any shape, but that doesn't mean you can manufacture it! ?? Manufacturing methods like injection molding have many design rules, but scale for mass production easily. ???Design with manufacturing from day one to save a ton of redesign time later. You don't need to fully design for manufacturing yet, but keep these design rules in mind as you go. ???If you’re stuck on which manufacturing method to choose, or need guidance, reach out to Sam Holland or Nate Padgett and see what our team of experienced freelancers recommends!

??Pro tip, buy a #3Dprinter for in-house low fidelity testing! Some of our favorite brands include Bambu Lab, Prusa Research, and Creality 3D. ??Outsource to prototype vendors when you need high fidelity or anything aside from FDM. ??Many vendors exist for quick turnaround 3D printing, CNC machining, and sheet-metal forming. You can choose fast, good, or cheap! ??In general, steer clear from the first page of a Google search for vendors. You're paying for their SEO results more than their quality! ??We recommend?Makelab?or?Craftcloud?for all things 3D printing and companies like SuNPe PROTOTYPE?in China for all methods of prototyping.?

??Pro Tip for early startups, don't design like Apple! They have a team of hundreds of engineers and designers and can afford to do things a typical startup cannot. Here are a few of our favorite tidbits: ????Please don't microdrill holes or machine titanium on your first generation product. ????Add draft to your plastic parts when possible. 0 degree draft = complicated tooling. ????Glossy white plastic parts have a higher scrap rate - they show scratches and imperfections. ????optimizing for every millimeter of internal real estate requires very tight team collaboration and lots of time to perfect a design. ????Fancy unboxing experiences are expensive! packaging can cost between $5-10 for something that is thrown away. ????CNC machined aluminum looks great, but is only scalable for thousands of units if you have the money to afford thousands of CNC machines.

??Pro tip: never design in a vacuum! ??Bring in engineers early during the ID concept phase to ensure your designs can be manufactured! ??Keep the #industrialdesigner on through all phases of work to ensure the final product remains as beautiful as it is functional. ??Want more advice about bringing your product to market? Talk to Sam Holland or Nate Padgett - they are ready to help!

We love seeing Voltpost, one of our favorite #climatetech clients, highlighted by The Verge and Forbes for their recent partnership with AT&T to boost curbside EV charging in Michigan and the Metro-Detroit area.??? Jeff Prosserman and his team are on a mission to democratize?electric mobility and advance the transition to renewable energy - and we can't wait to see what comes next!??? ??The Verge coverage: https://lnkd.in/eCQvJY9K ?? Forbes coverage: https://lnkd.in/eqUJY_G8

??Did you know: Not all radii are created equal!? ????Mechanical Engineers tend to use the handy "fillet" tool in their CAD program, which turns a sharp edge into a rounded edge with a known radius. ????The rounded profile is tanged to the other sides, which is why it's called a tangent fillet. ?????This causes a distinct change in how light reflects off the surface, and can look jarring. ????Industrial Designers tend to use "curvature continuous" fillets - which blends the transition smoothly. ????There are various grades of curvature continuous fillets, which soften or sharpen the transition. ??Try out using curvature continuous fillets on your next CAD model to see the difference!

Selecting a good hardware development partner can be crucial to the success of your project and company. With the number of options on the market, knowing who to trust can be tricky!??? Some founders are swayed by lowest prices, only to be disappointed with the quality of work. Others are initially dazzled by fancy pitch decks and proposals, but then ultimately things get stalled and they’re left without a manufacturable product or the proper documentation to take the design elsewhere. The amount of wasted time ? and resources ?? that is spent getting a client out of a bind like this is something we’d like to see avoided.?With this in mind, we’re sharing 4?? common red flags for early founders and CEOs to be mindful of when choosing a hardware development partner. We hope this helps! https://lnkd.in/eXfNrUqZ

??Parallel path design can help you set realistic goals for your product development team, and discover cost-saving opportunities along the way. ??Time to market is very important for hardware projects, and at #informal, we can shorten project timelines by using this parallel path approach. ? We like to create both a "works like" and "looks like" #prototype in parallel and ensure constant communication between designers and engineers is feeding into both outputs. ? Similarly, we can begin creating landing pages, capturing emails and creating product renders during the prototype process so that our go-to-market launch is ready faster. ??Here's a bit more on the three main prototyping phases: ?Works like prototype: messy proof of concept that demonstrates how the product will work. Here you'll use off-the-shelf parts and low volume manufacturing techniques like 3D printing. ? Looks like prototype = resembles the final product by focusing on the design to illustrate the size, shape and key user experience aspects of your product. Here you can utilize digital sketching tools and low-fidelity non-working prototypes to gauge user reactions. If desired, you can fabricate an appearance model for photo, videos and marketing uses. ? Integrated prototype - also referred to as engineering prototypes. This prototyping stage combines both works-like and looks-like into a product that looks and functions like the final desired product.