You’ve been mulling your revolutionary sheet metal product over in your mind’s eye for some time now. It has all the markings of a game-changer, but how can you be sure? How do you know it will work? Even if it does, can it be manufactured efficiently enough to make it profitable? Estes Accelerator Product Development Services can answer those questions and more.
You need a prototype
The only sure way to know whether your sheet metal idea will translate to a successful product is to develop a prototype – a physical model that can be held, examined and analyzed. A prototype allows manufacturers to assess and refine the design to ensure it does what it’s supposed to do and can be made cost-effectively. Estes Accelerator Product Development is a specialized team of engineers and designers with the sheet metal fabricating experience to manage your entire development process and get you from prototype to production as quickly as possible.
From vision to reality
The Estes Accelerator team has all the necessary tools, skills and expertise to bring projects to life and works closely with customers throughout the entire process.
To start, the team collaborates with customers, asks questions and works with them to understand precisely what is needed from the product design. A dedicated project manager is assigned to handle the project from start to finish. Then customers’ engineering teams are consulted to develop rough layouts and a conceptual design for refinement.
During the detailed design phase, the Accelerator team uses advanced design technology such as Pro E, SolidWorks or AutoCad Inventor to optimize designs for manufacturability and assembly (DFMA). DFMA requires a deep knowledge of sheet metal, production principles and the shop floor to prioritize ease of manufacturing and efficient assembly. Aligning engineering and production through DFMA principles increases speed to market, improves production efficiency and lowers cost per part. In addition, at this stage, the Estes team can help tailor the part to better fit the equipment, increasing speed and repeatability, giving the customer the peace of mind they need with a prototype project.
After the design phase, a prototype is developed, evaluated and refined for full production. For manufacturing, Estes uses some of the most advanced machinery in the industry, including the Max Velocity automated sheet metal fabrication cell, Amada hydraulic press brakes, MIG, TIG and 3D laser welding, Salvagnini CNC laser cutters and more. Additionally, Estes invests in the most skilled and experienced operators and craftsmen available.
Use the same fabricator for prototyping and production
The adage “don’t change horses midstream” applies equally well when transitioning from prototyping to full production. Using the same fabricator for both processes has several inherent advantages. Doing so preserves project familiarity and helps maintain production continuity because the same technology and processes are used. As a result, customers get products to market faster while avoiding any additional costs from part and/or production redesigns.
Estes Accelerator works
A supplier for a start-up communications company needed to take a rough product concept to commercial production on an extremely tight time schedule. The client provided the Estes Accelerator team with the product CAD models, and the team programmed, laser cut, deburred, formed, welded and installed hardware on the product for timely delivery to the supplier’s customer. By meeting the needs of its customer faster, the supplier was able to increase its sales.
Estes Accelerator can work for your project, too. Submit a Request for Quote today, and one of our engineers will be in touch to help bring your vision to life.
