When you have designed a bespoke component or assembly there are countless suppliers who could potentially produce it for you. Try typing “plastic injection moulders” or “precision machinists” in your browser search tool and see how many hits you get: literally millions! So, on what grounds do you make your selection? I’d suggest that the answer is definitely not
When the mechanical design process is illustrated it is traditionally sketched out in the form of a block diagram or a process flow diagram. But is there a better way?
Rapid Prototyping is so much more than Additive Manufacturing. There is now no need to wait 4-5 weeks for machined parts – there are now companies who will routinely machine parts in 7-10 or even 2-3 days depending on your budget.
Entrepreneurs need to have a good handle on both development & production costs up-front to build a robust business case. But how is it possible to get production costs at the very beginning of development before the product has been designed?