Industrial design is the creation of products that blend form and function. It's about optimizing user experiences, and bringing ideas to life. From concept to production, industrial design encompasses every stage of the product development process.  A well designed product will be intuitive to use and please or delight the user.

As an industrial design firm, we craft functional and aesthetically pleasing solutions tailored to meet your needs. Our approach is rooted in practicality, creativity, and a deep understanding of design principles and manufacturing technology.

We believe in a collaborative approach to design where we work closely with clients to translate their visions into tangible products. Whether starting from a napkin sketch, a detailed PDS (Product Design Specification), or your already existing design, and whether the needs are for a MVP (minimally viable product) or a feature rich product, we can help.  

Bay Area Experience

Our company was founded in San Jose, at the heart of Silicon Valley.  We worked with a number of start-ups to design and bring products to market.  Through this, we are intimately aware of the experience, needs, and culture of startups and entrepreneurs.  The path to developing physical products always is more involved than expected.  We have experience bridging the gap between concept and the final product.

Design

The cost and feasibility of a product is largely determined before the design leaves CAD.   To design producible, cost effective products, it is important to have expertise in current manufacturing processes.  There are different knowledge bases needed for designing parts for injection molding, machining, packaging and other processes.  We bring DFM expertise for several manufacturing processes.  Material selection for components also is critical.  We have a wealth of experience in material science.  

We design either in SolidWorks or Rhino3D depending on the product.  We have experience designing consumer products, tools, machinery, medical devices, pharmaceutical delivery systems, toys, and jewelry.

Design for Plastic Parts or Products

Design for injection molded plastic products is a specialty skill.  We have designed many successful plastic parts.  With good design, the parts are moldable, the mold price is minimized while the mold life is maximized, the parts are functional and appealing, and the parts have the life needed for their function and environment.  

We can help with the selection of and specification of the polymers used to make the products.  There are over 100,000 polymers to choose from.  The right material selection is essential for part function and durability in its use environment.

Design for Machined Parts or products

Machined parts have a different set of design principles from plastic parts.  With our in-house CNC expertise, we are intimately familiar with design for machining.  It is possible to design equivalently functional machined parts that vary in cost by orders of magnitude.  The difference is in understanding both the manufacturing processes and dimensional tolerance requirements.  

We can help with the selection of materials.  The material specification affects mechanical properties, machinability and tool life, production cycle time, part function and life, and of course cost.  

Prototyping

Prototyping is low volume production of iterations of a design.  Prototyping is used to check form, fit, and function of parts and products.  Prototyping often is done in stages, starting with 3D printing.  FDM (fused deposition modeling) printing is inexpensive and easy, but lacks precision and strength.  It often is used for the first samples of a part, but may not be suitable for testing fit and function.  The next stage in prototyping often is either utilizing a different 3D printing technology or fabricating machined parts.  The different 3D printing technologies include SLA, SLS, FDM, MJF and others.  There are several online services that offer these other printing technologies.  The costs for these printing technologies usually is on par with costs for CNC machining parts.  The different printing technologies or CNC machining typically suits fit and function testing, market testing, field testing, and venture funding demo samples.  

Prairie West Design has in-house FDM printing with multiple materials, CNC machining, and prototype injection molding. 

Molding

Prototype injection molding is not a commonly available capability, but is a capability we have.  High quality 3D printed parts never have the same physical properties of injection molded parts and never can match the cost of injection molded parts.  Where feasible, the best way to prototype injection molded parts is with injection molded parts.  However, production molds are expensive.  We design and fabricate low cost molds for parts up to 1 cubic inch volume in the full range of polymers available and perform the molding in-house.  With prototype injection molding it is possible to produce part volumes in the hundreds, which is prohibitive for 3D printing, either due to cost or time as the printing processes are slow.  

Electronics 

We have an electronics lab for breadboarding, PCBA rework, soldering, re-soldering and testing.  We have a network of experts in PCB design so we can be your one-stop-shop even if your product involves electronics. 

Documentation

You get the 3d models for everything we develop for you along with detailed engineering drawings.  We also can supply patent-suitable illustrations generated from your product models per your, your patent attorney, or your patent agent’s requirements.

Supply Chain Development

Once the product is developed, the next step is commercialization and scale-up. We have a network of manufacturers we have used, both domestic and overseas.  We can help guide you to suppliers to develop your supply chain.