There are many factors to consider when pursuing a product idea. One of them is what is the size of the market
or how many of these widgets do I think I can sell? There are several aspects of the development
of the product that are influenced by this number.
For example, the part design can be greatly
influenced by numbers. For a metal part,
if the quantity is low, say 100 parts, little or no tooling may be required and
it may be designed to be machined – straight walls, reduction of internal and
external radiuses, reduction of deep narrow passages, allowance for drastically
different wall thickness, reduction of material removal, etc. If the quantity is 10,000 parts, however, it
may be designed to be die cast – drafted vertical walls, similar thickness of
adjoining walls, constant wall thickness, internal and external radiuses,
radiuses between adjoining walls, reduction of total part volume, etc. Tooling would also be necessary. The design
may be functionally identical but the physical appearance could be
substantially different!
One example of how numbers can influence the method of manufacture can
be seen in the following images. The first shows a “Virtual Prototype” of
the design Blue Dolphin created for the customer TowelHub. The second
shows the rapid prototype Blue Dolphin 3D Printed after it was plated.
Originally, we thought of machining the base out of stainless steel.
TowelHub, however, through their market research was anticipating sales of
10,000 units. This allowed us to consider injection molding the part then
plating the plastic part with a stainless steel finish. The last
image is of the plated production part. You can see how well the
prototype resembled the final product!
Virtual
Prototype Rapid
Prototype Production Part
Doing research on your market can
provide a lot of useful information. As you can see from the simple example
above the numbers can:
- Influence the design path
- Establish whether or not there will be tooling costs
- Define production costs
- Determine initial capital investment
- Provide valuable information to lenders for business financing
So what’s in a number? A lot!
Mark A. Jackson
President
Blue Dolphin Design and Engineering, Inc.
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