From simple enclosures to complex mechanical assemblies. We use Solid works for our 3D CAD mechanical designs. Not only is it a great industrial design tool but it also seamlessly integrates into Altium, accelerating your development and ensuring that when the mechanical first articles and the prototype PCBs come together for the first time that everything simply fits!
Product and mechanical design from simple enclosures through to complex mechanisms.
Integration of 3D design (Solidworks) with pcb development (Altium) to ensure a seamless product solution.
Development of physical and graphical user interfaces that make products easy and safe to operate.
Decades of manufacturing experience using every process and material – no matter the challenge we can design and build it!
We can design a huge range of mechanical parts and assemblies from complex CNC machinings, injection mouldings, fabrications, additive parts (be it sintered or grown).
As well as looking after the mechanical design, our industry experts consider future volume production too; how to make your product in volume and what it will take to manufacture, all this from the first day they work on your design.
There is a key symbiotic relationship between the design of the electrical & electronic elements of a product and the industrial design / enclosure developments. The ideal timing is to have a scheme for the enclosure and a reasonable view on the features you want from the electronics. With neither element entirely frozen it maximises the likelihood of a compromise and optimisation for both disciplines which is at the heart of every great electronic product ever designed.
It may be the application itself calls for it but often the biggest advantages lie in profitability (cost-savings) and identity. Cost savings The first advantage is cost savings because as soon as you have funded your tool you can take 250,000 impressions from a soft tool before any refurbishment is required and then you are only paying for each impression in process & materials cost which is dramatically better value than buying in 3rd party enclosures. Product/Brand Identity The second advantage is brand and product identity, being able to easily identify the product itself in colour, form, brand logo and so differentiate from your competitor products can amplify your offering and be a USP in a challenging market place.
If you are looking to use an off-the-shelf enclosure, that’s fine too, as the layout for the electronics develop, candidate off-the-shelf enclosures can be identified that align well, and in effect the electronics can be designed around that selection.
It’s becoming ever more cost effective to have your own bespoke enclosure even if your initial volumes are not huge, as the tooling costs have come down. Soft or aluminium based tooling where the injection core itself changes but the rest of the tooling arbour is common, including the heating elements means that less of the tool is produced entirely bespoke for each application. This reduces the lead times and also the tooling cost. The lead times can be a matter of days and as it’s not a hard tool with the heating elements all built in the costs are also better controlled.
It’s very common for portable electronics enclosures to make use of injection moulded materials. This also allows for windows / transparencies to be over moulded and a soft over moulding to be applied too.This can make the look and feel of the final product really stand out as well as easing final assembly at the box build stage of the volume build.
For harsh or extreme environments or simply for longevity its now quite common to seal a product or enclosure to a high standard. We have extensive experience of developing products for use in challenging environments be it the amount of handling or the harshness of the user environment itself.
