What is a mechanical designer?

Mechanical designers are professionals who fill in the details between conception and fabrication. On the surface we are able to take a design, concept or floating thought and get it down on paper so that when you engage a fabricator they know exactly how to put your product together. But there are many people out there that can create a well presented set of drawings that look like the product you are wanting to build. The value add you get with a mechanical designer is we can think through the fabrication, assembly and end user experience processes. This ensures that the set of drawings that you are happy with can be fabricated, assembled and operated without compromising the design intent along the way. 

 You can think of it like building a house with a detailed set blueprints versus a sketch on a napkin or a thousand words for every picture. Your builder will have a much easier time working with detailed plans, and the more confidence they have in your plans the less of a safety factor they will need to put into the price.

So you work on cars?

This is my favourite question when I tell people I’m a mechanical designer. The way I like to explain it is that civil projects are things that don’t move, mechanical projects are things that do move. It leaves things very open, but that is what makes it interesting. Everything from your TV remote to the chair you are sitting on, the bike rack on your car, the fireplace in the corner of the room, your friend's prosthetic hand. Even things you never give a thought, the robots that clean the garbage chutes… or sewers, drones that take surveying photos or fertilize a farmers field. All these things have been worked on by a mechanical designer.

Why would I need a mechanical designer?

It may seem like a bit of a niche but if you are wanting to create something that has never been done or even is left of center you’ll need to think through all the ways your product can be fabricated and assembled, maybe even invent a new way to do things. We have a deep understanding of various fabrication processes so we can be creative in the way we design. If you want to cut down on fabrication time or don’t have heavy equipment we can design sheet metal parts to be hand folded at the point of assembly. If you want something to be cheap to fabricate but have key luxury touch points we can incorporate low cost sheetmetal design with the refined finish of injection molding or 3D printing to provide one cohesive design then organise the fabrication across separate factories.

We have an engineering/design team, what else have you got?

If you already have a team of skilled designers and engineers then you already know how important they are to your company. But what happens when you have a deadline? Or you need help to bridge the gap while one of your team is on leave? Or you need someone to make testing rigs or assembly jigs? Life is unpredictable so when you need help you want it to be reliable and they need to hit the ground running. Because we are all full-time employees we don’t have the contractor mindset. We are as committed to your project and being a cultural fit as you would expect from any of your own team. We have a focus on building a long term relationship, with short term placements. We can step in for a week or a month, and we’ll still be here to help you in a year.