Product design has become a critical part of the entire lifecycle of any product. It comes into existence right from the time when an idea is being thought of to be converted into reality. In this growing technology era, the conversion of ideas into product feasibility and launching them into the real world has become faster and credit for the same goes to Product Design Company wherein a step-by-step process of idea understanding, its application, conceptualization, patent filing, design and engineering, prototyping, testing, validation, and the market launch is being considered by them. These experts work at product design, development, and prototyping companies and provide services like design and development, invention design invention help services, prototyping, etc. to a lot of engineering domains like energy and transportation, medical devices design, oil, and gas engineering, consumer goods, etc. which involves detailed Design and engineering at part, assemblies, sub-system, system, and final complete assembly level. Product design experts work as a team with varying responsibilities within them for project management, market evaluation, concept feasibility, 3D modeling and surfacing, virtual engineering through computer simulations, design and engineering optimization for cost and functionalities, fabrication, etc.
Now let’s go through what is involved when the product design team receives an idea or invention help services request. The first task is to bring it to the drawing board and perform multiple brainstorming sessions involving all the team members with varying responsibilities as described above. These sessions are required to understand the idea for its functionalities, market evaluation, product dimensions, materials to be used, in which way it would be used by the end user, design variables, cost analysis, manufacturing processes, etc. Overall, we can consider following broad steps used by experts as design conceptualization, detailed design, simulation, and prototyping, physical testing.
Design conceptualization is being taken care of at a very early stage of product development and it provides the foundation for the complete development program. Experts use 3D modeling, drawing tools, materials selection programs, etc. for this activity and develop numerous concepts to proceed further. All the concepts are developed considering all design and cost constraints defined for the product. 3D modeling allows experts to work on these concepts and modify the design quickly according to the customer or design requirements and thus speeding up the development process.
Once conceptualization is completed, the team of experts works on detailing the design in terms of dimensioning, assembly check, functionalities, design calculations, etc. Concept 3D model is used for developing the further detailed 3D model. This requires a clear understanding of product design and will form the basis for the next step in the development cycle. The detailed design is converted into model files which are further used for simulation.
Simulation activity is initiated on the detailed design developed which involves virtual engineering of load cases to be applied to the product and understanding its various aspects in terms of the physics involved. Some of the engineering simulations include structural, motion dynamics, fluid dynamics, electromagnetic, etc. The selection of simulation is entirely dependent on the product and its requirements. The simulation also involves optimization of design through the design of experiments methodology wherein all variables are reviewed for maximizing the product performance and reducing cost and material. With this, a concurrent engineering approach is followed where the simulation team and design team are in discussion till the prototype design is finalized. Through simulation, design experts reduce a lot of time and evaluate the product much before the prototype drawings are released as the development of prototypes is costly and takes time which stretches the product development time.
The next step is to proceed with prototyping for which drawings are released based on simulation and detailed design approval. Manufacturing processes are then identified for developing the prototyping ad is decided based on what type of functionalities is to be checked on the prototype version of the product. E.g. if strength evaluation is to be done on the product, the manufacturing needs to involve the correct material and processes for correct interpretation. 3D printing is also another manufacturing technology being used and is gaining momentum currently with reduced infrastructure requirements and shorter development time also.
With the prototype in hand, experts put it up for physical testing based on design load cases that were developed for the product. The physical testing setup takes time to develop fixtures for holding product and also involve significant cost. Results of physical testing are then correlated with computer simulation to understand the boundary conditions, loads, performance of products, etc. The product undergoes extensive testing to validate its on-field applications and in case of failures observed the product design, simulation is reviewed.
These steps are followed in every industry wherein product development is required and has to reduce extensively the development cycle and cost which is significant to energy and transportation, medical devices design, oil and gas engineering, and consumer goods industries.