The Product Development

This information is being provided for the benefit of our client and persons interested in learning more about design.

The selection of the correct concept is critical to the success of any given product development effort. We utilize industrial research, competitive product research, technical software tools for early analysis and visualization, and formalized concept evaluation techniques to insure that an informed product concept results.

Before we attempt to start product concept development of any type we first get educated: By you, you’re customers, your current suppliers, your competitors, and any other place that we can learn about your industry.

We use formalized techniques to turn the education, information, and ideas that we collect into concrete product concepts. Concepts are supported early on with our software tools to get a strong feel for a concept's reaction to a number of potential situations. Our concept generation phase also collects the types of information that make detailed design and engineering easier, faster, and less uncertain.

Ideas don’t make the product come to fruition. It takes hard work to bring an idea into reality. Hard core engineering supported with the right tools and the right product development processes are what it takes to make your product a reality.

By employing solid modeling early in the design cycle allows us to accurately solve detrimental issues quickly. Additionally, we can analyze parts more accurately in the context of a realistic assembly. Analysis can be performed directly on the computer during the design cycle reducing the effective time of product development.

Part of any successful product development venture is the ability to match the product intent with the appropriate manufacturing processing. Some of the many factors to be considered during the process engineering phase of the project are:

As a whole, the process engineering comprises a large portion of the business planning in a successful product development project.

Strong organizational skills combined with diversified product development experience provide the backbone of our project management capabilities. These are combined with a strong engineering background to insure that your project moves rapidly towards successful completion.

Early and ongoing functional analysis of the product as it takes form is used throughout the engineering effort to guide us to the best solution by plan, not by accident. Rapid prototyping is employed religiously in the product development cycle. This philosophy allows the customer and us to evaluate the products at the earliest possible opportunity, which results in severely reduced tooling and manufacturing risks. Often rapid prototypes are used to verify the 3D modeling process, but they are extremely beneficial in fabricating initial product models for form, function and shows.

Our close affiliation with the most reputable rapid prototype service bureaus affords the customer and us the luxury of the fastest delivery and quality of workmanship.

There are occasions where a product has become long in the tooth or perhaps the original design and engineering intent have just missed the target. SolidMasters offers the service of value engineering. Whether it be redesigning for product evolution, product quantity increases requiring more cost effective manufacturing methodology, or assisting in delivering the intended theory of operation. We are available to implement your objectives.

The success of a product development project is not solely reliant on the design and engineering. Vendors have a major responsibility in fabricating the design intent to specifications. Coordinating and communicating the design intent with the vendor is critical in establishing a fluid transition between engineering and production. Our diligent and professional vendor liaison efforts allow for timely delivery of accurate products, while reducing the risk for project schedule overruns, budget overruns and product release delays.

We use associative solid modeling software, which keeps our 2D documentation in sync with our latest solid models. Automatically generates *.DWG or *.DXF files for users of AutoCAD or other CAD systems. Since most of our projects end up in production the value of having an accurate and up to date documentation package at the end of the project cannot be overstated.

SolidMastersoffers full service 3D solid modeling solutions. We have the ability to design your product / idea in 3D CAD programs as if it were a solid object. You can see the process three dimensionally as the geometry is being created. This reduces your parts time to market, as well as reducing your chance of a product being incorrectly designed. In addition, once your product is created in a 3D CAD program, a wide variety of 3rd party products can be utilized such as stress analysis, animation, conceptual rendering, CNC tool paths, and more. The 3D CAD solid modeling platforms we support will link themselves to a three dimensional assembly and to a two dimensional drawing file, so once you make a change anywhere in the design process, all of the linked files will update automatically. This is a tremendous benefit in the reduction of error/failure rate for any design process, which we can apply to each and every one of our customers.

Product Development

Mechanical Engineering services: