Ideal Prototype's Portfolio in Greensboro, NC
\Our portfolio highlights our broad experience in both our customer base as well as the type of work completed. Weather your looking for a great production finish, or extreme attention to detail, you will find we are experienced for the task .
This customer had to make up some time in their schedule. Critical decisions about the design of the part needed to be made in a hurry. We were able to deliver a conceptual prototype overnight. With the part in hand they were able to get the customer approvals required to move quickly through their milestone.
At Ideal Prototypes we can cut your part from virtually any material you specify. In the same time that you can get an SLA you can also get a part that is not only accurate dimensionally, but is also made from the production intent material. Many of our customers can not afford the time it takes to make and test tooled prototype parts. Machined parts allow them to test critical functionality of their designs prior to production tooling.
The design engineer for this cellular phone cover wanted to gain confidence in the functionality of the snap features before the design was released for tooling. Using our 5-axis CNC mill we were able replicate the undercuts and tinny features as well as cut it out of the production-intended plastic. Every new set up can add variation to the part. With the 5-axis mill only one set up was required to achieve the desired undercuts. The prototype had the same material properties as the final production part and the engineer was able to accurately test the fit and feel of the snaps.
This customer was considering making a prototype tool for their very low volume production run. We were able to cut the parts they needed at a fraction of the cost of a tool, and in one quarter of the time.
A human factors study was required on the layout and ease of use of small buttons that were to go into an electronic device. A tool such as this one, with several hand actions, was cut out of plastic and the buttons were cast from the same durometer material that would be used in production. Several patters and button shapes were quickly created so that the optimal layout could be selected by user research groups.