I have developed & manufactured electronics in Asia for the last 20 years.
Most people go through different versions of prototypes, putting it in the hands of target users is essential, keeping your idea secret is a big mistake.You will get a lot of feedback which more often than not lead to drastic rethinks of the whole device. So I strongly suggest to go to China only after you are VERY sure what you want. At home you can iterate a lot faster. Best would be for you to start playing around yourself with Arduino, which is a very newbe friendly way to make and program hardware. If that's really not for you then find some enthusiast at a local makerspace to do it, they're all over now http://spaces.makerspace.com/makerspace-directory.
You can also quickly iterate on the housing design using free 3D CAD software and 3D printers.
Do realize that Arduino is a great way to validate your specification, but not a cost effective architecture for a mass manufactured product, so a lot of the work will need to be done all over again, see https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/kickstarter-prototype-production-100k-enough-keesjan-engelen
So don't spend months and months to get your firmware just right, to get your cost to an acceptable level you likely will have to switch to another processor which needs to be programmed in a different language.
Once you're happy with the way the prototype works I would look at manufacturing as follows:
1. China is the best place to manufacture electronic products. If only because they have the most complete supply chain in the world. https://techpinions.com/why-cant-the-us-build-consumer-electronic-products/ China has many thousands of factories making any kind of part imaginable. They are especially unmatched in any part which needs to be custom made: housings, batteries, PCB&#;s, motors, LCD&#;s, cables&#;.
2. One of the keys to reducing cost, time and risk in product development is to use existing parts as much as possible. Quite a few firms for some reason still regularly have LCD&#;s custom made. Why pay $250,000 in set-up, and months in mold production and sampling, if you can design around an LCD which is already being manufactured in huge quantities?
3. 60% of the unit cost of a product are decided in the architecture stage, and 20% during the design. As they say at Toyota: &#;&#;Skillful improvements at the planning and design stage are ten times more effective that at the manufacturing stage.&#;&#; http://www.design4manufacturability.com/DFM_article.htm
4. Doing your design without close interaction with the China vendors means you&#;re missing a lot of information, which leads to sub-optimal design decisions. The further you advance in the design process, the more expensive it gets to change anything. So if 98% of a product&#;s design is already done and validated in testing, you can hire a really smart China manufacturing consultant, but there is only so much they can do because most aspects are frozen already.
5. Another important tenet of Design For Manufacturing (DFM) is early supplier involvement. If you need custom parts better make sure that the factory who will make them actually feels comfortable manufacturing them. This requires a lot of communication in the design stage.
6. If you&#;re in the US the 13 hours&#; time difference and language barriers make a smooth & fast collaboration with Chinese engineers very difficult. Plus if you have never worked with the factory before they&#;re not going to put much time in optimizing a design they may never get to make. Only for established clients does a factory see a very real chance that they will be responsible to make the part efficiently and reliably, and so they will be very keen to help optimize your design for their processes and capabilities. The flip side is that you are optimizing your design for this particular factory, so you&#;d better be sure that they can indeed deliver.
7. Picking a factory is not easy, the proof is always in the pudding: how responsive are they, how do they react when there is a problem. Are they going to say: &#;Oooh you do not want the batteries to explode, you never specified that, well that actually costs a lot more&#;. You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your princess. Except that in manufacturing kissing is not good enough, you actually have to get into bed with them, only after you have wired your deposit and have been working with them for 6 months do you really know your bedfellow. This goes not just for the factory doing the final assembly, but for every factory making custom components for you. Building a reliable roster of suppliers takes many years, and a lot of &#;tuition&#;. In China going for the lowest bidder in the end invariably ends up being the most expensive option.
8. The more complex your product, the more inter-dependencies between parts, the bigger the mess trying to get a product manufactured in China when it has been designed in a vacuum somewhere else (and it&#;s not just Kickstarters who run into this problem).
9. The first samples for most any custom made part in most cases need some improvements. Some companies work will send their &#;China manufacturing guy&#; but it takes a lot for 1 person to master all the intricate considerations which went into the design of the cosmetic appearance, the construction of the injection mold, the layout of the circuit allowing it to pass FCC certifications, the adjustments needed in the calibration software&#; So at IBM for example knowledge transfer in manufacturing is considered a dirty word, the original designer of an aspect of the design has to see his design through all the way into manufacturing. Flying each of the 12 different functional experts over to China quickly becomes expensive, and not every engineer wants to camp out in a China factory dorm for months.
10. So doing electronic product design as close as possible to the factories making the parts and doing the final assembly will significantly lower your development costs, your unit costs, your time to market and overall risk.
11. The knee-jerk reaction to get this done is to asking a China ODM factory to adapt one of their products to your wishes. This can work well if your changes are minor. But if you want them to do more there are some serious risk with this approach: you don&#;t have any ownership of the design IP, and it more likely than not it will take ages. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/china-factory-designs-7-pitfalls-avoid-keesjan-engelen
12. If you're ready to camp out in China for a good 6 months then https://hax.co/ would be a great place to be mentored. https://www.hwtrek.com/ provides a lot of China & Taiwan resources for HW start-ups. You could also give the job to a consultancy such as www.detekt.com which specializes in helping start-ups.
13. Setting up your own design team in Asia can be tricky, the success hinges heavily on picking the right CTO to manage and build out the team. And in China this kind of talent tends to switch jobs very often, especially after they have obtained a foreign &#;stamp of approval&#; on their resume.
14. It is true that hardware can get copied very quickly, but copycats are unlikely to invest their efforts in an unproven product. So this risk comes up only after your product starts being successful in the market. By that time everybody can copy it, no matter whether you manufacture in the US or in China. In fact products manufactured in the US likely have to sell at a higher price, making them a more attractive target for copycats.
15. Furthermore, the painful truth is that excellence in hardware no longer gives your company a lasting competitive advantage, to build barriers to entry hardware companies these days need to work not just on brand and distribution, but also on Community, DataBase and Software. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/toasters-roller-coasters-how-hardware-startups-can-john-melas-kyriazi Doing this well is no mean feat, so I would focus most of your effort there, most of my clients are companies which realize that hardware no longer is their core activity.
My firm www.titoma.com works with well established companies, the reason is that 7 or 8 vendor partners put a lot of effort in collaborating with us from the very beginning to optimize every aspect of the design for manufacturing. They invest this time because from experience they know that the products we design will be manufactured with them parts for years. Unfortunately not every start-up becomes a runaway success, such is life, but I cannot afford to burn bridges with my partners, sorry!
When looking for good partners in China you will need to spend (and keep spending) a lot of effort on selling the factories on the fantastic prospects for your product, otherwise your 1K pieces project will quickly become their No. Last priority. So being there very often is essential.
-12-18
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When you have a great idea about a new product, you cannot wait to see how well it may be sold in the market. However, it&#;s risky to invest a bit amount of money to jump to production. In this case, rapid prototypes play a great role.
Businesses have their share of challenges, especially when they&#;re planning to bring a physical product to the market. Businesses must not only come up with a creative concept that will benefit the market they are entering, but they must also produce a market-ready product, find investors and funds, etc.
Fortunately, today's businesses have access to more tools and services than ever before, making it easier for them to produce innovative products. They benefit in a variety of ways by working with prototyping services.
Rapid prototyping can create samples of your product to evaluate the appearance, function, strength, and manufacturability of the product components. It enables you to identify design flaws early during the product development, so that you can take action to fix them.
Rapid prototyping technology has advanced significantly. It is now less expensive to obtain high-quality prototypes in China.
I. Benefits of making rapid prototypes in China
Testing market
In the past, quick prototyping was used to determine whether a product was suitable for large production, people would create items, identify any defects, and find solutions. Now, rapid prototypes are more used to determine whether the product will satisfy the market demand.
Saving time
Tooling is not required in prototype manufacturing methods, which indicates that parts are manufactured immediately. Rapid prototyping has drastically shortened the time it takes to go from product design to product feasibility analysis. Anything that was discovered via this procedure can be swiftly applied to future development.
Saving cost
Making moulds is expensive, and any modifications made to product design require modifications of the moulds, which is also expensive. Using rapid prototyping during the development stage saves money by avoiding the need to redesign the manufacturing moulds.
Reducing risks
Mass production requires strict quality control due to the potential impact that even a little manufacturing error can have on an entire batch of defective goods. Quick prototypes enable extensive physical analysis at an early level, enabling developers to test for flaws and make useful modifications before significant production issues arise.
Keeping versatility
If there are any issues with the product style, entrepreneurs will simply return to the planning stage, adjust the CAD file, and have a new prototype built. This can be an advantage because it gives companies the freedom and ability to improve their product and launch the product at right time in the market.
II.
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Major Rapid Prototyping Technologies in China
3D printing
3D printing is an additive manufacturing process, where the requested prototype is created by layering many components together. Due to its great accuracy, low cost, and material compatibility, it is the most popular technology for making quick prototypes in China.
CNC machining
It is a technique used by prototyping services to ensure that visual and functional parts of the product are assembled in a manner that is similar to the original elements. As you know, getting parts constructed with the required materials is essential to verify your design.
This technology is suitable for the common machined materials, including a variety of hard plastics, and metals such as aluminium, brass, steel, nylon, ABS, and zinc.
Die casting
Aluminium die casting is appropriate when you require numerous prototypes with a clear layout, smooth sides, and excellent dimensional accuracy. The procedure is basic and straightforward and doesn't require many professionals with specialized skills.
In addition to aluminium, the procedure can also be utilized to create prototypes out of magnesium and copper.
Vacuum casting
This method allows producing plastic parts in a quick way. The polymer material is injected into a tool to create the prototypes. The main benefit of vacuum casting is the tooling is inexpensive. This technique is very useful for the rapid prototyping of plastic parts. Visual and mechanical characteristics are identical to those of commercial elements.
Rapid prototyping technology can generate physical models directly from computer-aided design (CAD) files, greatly shortening the time from design to prototype, which means buyers can see physical samples of their customized products from China in less time, speeding up product development development and launch process.
III. Difference Between Prototypes and Final Products
Material: Prototypes are built of completely different materials than the final products because the material that is used in the final product is either too expensive or too difficult to create. In some circumstances, the ultimate production materials should be in the early stages of development and not yet available for use during a prototype.
Process: Prototypes are made using completely different fabrication techniques than the final product because mass-production technologies are ineffective for producing a small number of components.
Verification: The final product is subjected to quality assurance tests to ensure that it complies with the drawings or specifications. Custom review fixtures, statistical sampling procedures, and other techniques are used for manufacturing larger quantity of final products. Prototypes are often designed with an expectation that some adjustments or work will be done during the fabrication process.
IV. Process of Making Prototypes in China
1) Design the product yourself so that you have the blueprint and copyrights. Avoid making the error of letting a Chinese manufacturer handle it because they will believe that they are the sole owner of all intellectual property rights.
2) Verify and confirm that all product components can be created or purchased. That can take some time, depending on how sophisticated the prototype is, but it will identify some of the technical challenges and confirm whether cost targets are reachable.
3) Assemble the prototype once all the components are prepared. Iterations in design and prototype are required at this point to address all issues.
4) At the last stage, take some time to do thorough testing. The urge to start producing as soon as possible is quite tempting, but it is much quicker and less expensive to repair a problem that is found before manufacturing begins.
V.
Facts About Chinese Prototyping Manufacturers
Flexibility with cost
While many people believe that Chinese manufacturers are of low-cost, but the fact is that it isn't that cheap at all times. The truth is that Chinese prototype manufacturers will try to work inside your budget, they are flexible of choosing different technologies when constructing a model.
Willingness for cooperation
Chinese manufacturers are far more willing and prepared to take on work and complete it than the native manufacturers. The Chinese market is diverse and caters to a wide range of pricing points, so you'll always find someone eager to take the work that meets your budget and requirements.
Exact replica
Rapid prototyping technology is very suitable for the production of customized and personalized products. For example, when you need custom products made in China, it has more possibilities and flexibility and accelerates the product development process. Copying exact styles from your competitor is unethical, but you can add a few elements of your own and make your innovative piece. For example, if you like the size and work of a specific brand, you can ask your Chinese manufacturer to replicate specific characteristics from the brand and have all different parts made according to your company's style. This gives you a better chance of landing the right style quickly. When buying bulk items from China, rapid prototyping technology provides fast, economical, flexible and high-quality solutions for buyers who need customized products, greatly promoting the development of customized products.
Punctuality
Many companies find that their prototypes are delivered on time and in good condition by Chinese manufacturers. They are hardworking people who always get the job done on schedule. They are adamant about achieving extremely tight turnaround times in a highly competitive market. Your prototype will be consistently delivered on time, which translates into tangible advantages for your business.
Feasibility prototypes
Feasibility prototypes made in China are frequently used to examine certain alternatives that are included later in the designing procedure. These allow designers to improve a design after creating an initial prototype, and they can be used both digitally and for physical models. If a designer discovers that a crucial component of the product is lacking, a feasibility model is built that may be customized as new concepts emerge.
Working model
A working model allows you to test a product's appearance and function to see if it works the way you expect it to. This is useful for automated inventions or various styles with alternatives that demand precise planning or strategy. The idea is to stick to the basic designs to see if the design actually works.
Conclusion
Choosing appropriate rapid prototypes from China is important for creating a successful final product. Different methods have different tools and costs involved. You need a suitable Chinese manufacturer that uses your prototyping concepts, which will help get a smooth business process.When you contact Chinese manufacturers, please be specific about your needs.
The advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing prototypes to China should be assessed. The huge benefits are lower prices, scalability, and faster turnarounds, the concerns may be intellectual protection, so, you need a trustworthy partner, like a verified sourcing agent, to help you.
Are you interested in learning more about china quick prototyping? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!