Symptom 01
"The prototype works, the product does not."
Hand-built samples pass, then the first molded parts fail fit or finish. The design was never reviewed against the process that would make it.
From a CAD file to a shipping carton.
Most teams can get a prototype. The hard part is the eleventh thousand unit, made by somebody else, on a schedule, at the cost you promised your board. That gap is the whole job — and it's what this team was built for.
When teams call us
What goes wrong, and why it’s usually one thing.
Symptom 02
"Unit cost is double the model."
Tooling, cycle time, material choice and assembly sequence were decided after the design froze, which is the most expensive possible order.
Symptom 03
"Nobody owns the ramp."
The design firm handed off a package. The factory is asking questions nobody can answer. Yield sits at 70% and every week costs a launch window.
The work
Design and manufacturing are one decision, not two phases.
We keep design and process engineering in the same room. Every geometry decision is checked against the process that will produce it, and every process decision is checked against the experience of the person holding the product.
That isn't a philosophy, it's a scheduling choice: the DFM review happens in week two, when changing a wall thickness costs an hour, not in month four when it costs a tool.
- Industrial design and mechanical engineering under one lead
- In-house prototype shop, so iteration is a day not a purchase order
- Tooling and molding managed by the same team that signed the drawing
- Ramp support on site until yield is where it was promised
Days
Prototype turnaround, not weeks
Weeks
Tooling to first article
One
Team accountable end to end
- Prototyping
- SLA and DLP resin, SLS nylon, FDM, vacuum casting, CNC, sheet metal, and metal printing for functional parts.
- Machining
- 3-axis, 4-axis and 5-axis CNC, turning, EDM, and surface finishing — for fixtures, tooling inserts and low-volume production.
- Tooling
- Injection mold design and build, mold flow review, gate and cooling layout, first-article inspection.
- Production
- Small batch through volume, with control plans, inspection criteria and yield reporting.
The five gates
Nothing advances without a signed artifact.
Each gate produces a document, not a status update. If a gate is skipped, the cost shows up later with interest. So we don't skip them.
- Gate 01 — Intent
- Design intent locked. Target cost, target volume, regulatory envelope, and the three features that must not be compromised. Output: a one-page intent brief both sides sign.
- Gate 02 — DFM
- Manufacturability reviewed. Wall thickness, draft, radii, tolerance stack, material substitution, assembly sequence. Output: a DFM report with costed recommendations — including the ones that require a design change.
- Gate 03 — Prototype
- Form, fit and function proven. Parts made on the process closest to production, not the easiest one available. Output: physical samples plus a test log.
- Gate 04 — Tooling
- Tool built and first article inspected. Dimensional report against drawing, cosmetic criteria agreed before the steel is cut. Output: first-article inspection report.
- Gate 05 — Ramp
- Yield and cycle time stable. Control plan in place, inspection points defined, escalation path documented. Output: ramp plan and control plan handed to whoever runs production.
Materials and processes
The detail, if you want it.
We keep a broad material library in-house rather than quoting whatever a partner happens to stock. Below are the families we run most often.
- Engineering plastics
- ABS · PC · PC/ABS · POM · PA12 and PA6-GF nylon · PMMA · PEEK for high-temperature parts.
- Photopolymers
- Standard and high-temp resins, ultra-fine detail resin, transparent resin, full-color resin, castable wax for investment casting, and flexible rubber-like resin.
- Metals
- Aluminum alloys, stainless steel, mold steel, brass, and titanium — machined, printed, or cast depending on volume.
- Other
- Ceramics, gypsum composites, and silicone tooling for low-volume urethane parts.
- Finishing
- Bead blasting, anodizing, powder coating, painting and pad printing, laser etching, and texture matching to a supplied sample.
- Tolerances
- Machined features typically held to ±0.05 mm; molded parts to the tolerance agreed in the DFM report, not to a generic default. Critical dimensions are called out on the drawing, never assumed.
| Process | Material | Min precision | Lead time | Part |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rapid sand casting | Sand | 0.02 mm | 3–5 days | Turbine sample, single unit |
| FDM | PLA | 0.05 mm | 1 day | 700 assembly fixtures, 65 × 65 × 4 mm |
| CT reverse modeling + print | PLA | 0.05 mm | 1 day | Bone model from patient scan |
| Stereolithography (SLA) | Photosensitive resin | 0.1 mm | 5 days | Positioning wristband, ≤ 50 × 50 mm |
| FDM, large format | PLA | 0.2 mm | 10 days | 4000 × 2000 × 200 mm site model |
These are the values we held on those jobs, not catalogue minimums. A tolerance we haven't proven on your geometry is a tolerance we won't quote.
Related work
Where this has already run.
Two programs where the tolerance and the deadline were the whole problem.
Mold manufacturing · Turbine
A turbine manufacturer: one sample, 0.02 mm, 3–5 days
A single turbine sample that traditional casting couldn't justify. We reduced a multi-stage mold workflow to two steps and supplied sand molds that plug into the customer's existing line.
0.02 mm minimum precision · 3–5 days · rapid sand casting
Read the program
Industrial equipment · Fixtures
700 sets of assembly fixtures in a single day
An electronics factory took an urgent order and needed to expand its line immediately. The injection molder declined the quantity. We ran it on a flexible line instead of a tooling cycle.
700 sets delivered on time · 1 day · 0.05 mm precision
Read the programSend us the file you are worried about.
A STEP file, a drawing, or a photo of the part that keeps failing. We will come back with where we think the cost and the risk are.