By Fabien Gaussorgues Are you going to manufacture a mechanical and/or electrical product in China? This article will help you plan for the steps to follow. You might need a concept of the product, to show investors and to launch a Kickstarter campaign. You might need a prototype that is close to the final version of the product, in order to run testing (including usability testing) and validate the design before going into production. When making prototypes in China, the usual … [Read more...]
Product Specifications: What Tolerances for Measurements?
A client asked me, how to decide on tolerances to write on a drawing, when giving a technical file to a Chinese manufacturer? I always suggest to importers that they define a product specification sheet. And they often struggle with setting the right tolerances. Many considerations need to be taken into account. This is not a formal how-to guide, but I jotted down a few ideas. First, you might not need to specify every dimension on your product. And on those dimensions you end up … [Read more...]
Example of Indiegogo Project Made in China: NAOX
The number of new products to be launched on Kickstarter or Indiegogo has grown very quickly. It seems not a week passes without a start-up team contacting us over at Sofeast for either developing a new product or for help on their production in China. Some projects are very successful and raise important amounts of funding on these platforms. Most projects raise more modest funds and don’t receive much publicity. However, some are worth studying. Not just because their products can be pretty … [Read more...]
Manufacturing an Electronic Product in China: Ideas for Cost Saving
This is the last article in our series about what it takes to develop a complex electronic product in China. We'll look at ways to save on the costs of electronic components, and how to make assembly easier. Ideally, your Chinese contract manufacturer would help you on this topic. Especially with making assembly easier, since it translates into fewer quality issues and delays. In reality, it is up to the buyer & designer to come up with these types of improvements. 1. Cost Saving … [Read more...]
Design Optimization For Production of Electronics in China
This is the next article in our series that aims at giving readers an idea of what it takes to develop a complex electronic product in China. So you have prototypes. Before you start to work toward mass production, you probably want to refine the design. It usually takes one of the following two forms: Optimizing the material selection Miniaturizing some elements (This is not exhaustive. Many other aspects can be optimized -- for example power consuption, performance of the … [Read more...]
Making Prototypes for an Electronic Product Made in China
This is the fifth article in our series about what it takes to develop an electronic product in China. Let's look at the prototyping stage. The imaginary example we thought of, the Drone Intruder Interception System, is a complex design. It would require many different prototype models which would require different prototyping methods. For each element, there needs to be functional prototypes that not only work and function on their own but also as a system. This allows for individual … [Read more...]
Selection of a Chip Set and Planning the Writing of Firmware
After the design of the PCBA schematics comes the time to choose a chip set and to start working on the firmware. (If you are not inclined to read technical how-to articles, this will be quite boring to you... But we are trying to give a complete picture of what it takes to develop an electronic product.) Let's look at these 2 steps one by one. 1. Chip set selection A microprocessor uses microelectronic fabrication techniques to shrink the Central Processing Unit (CPU) to a very small … [Read more...]
PCBA Schematics Design for Your Production in China
The board schematics and the choice of chip set are an important step when developing an electronic product. Let's look into this, in this third article in our series (part 1 is here, part 2 is here) In a complex product system like we are discussing with the drone intruder interceptor, there will be multiple printed circuit board assemblies (PCBA), each having a specific function within the system. Some of these PCBAs will be size sensitive, which may require dedicated miniature or micro … [Read more...]
R&D and Power Consumption Evaluation – Develop an Electrical Product In China Part 2
Last week I posted part 1 of our series on What It Takes to Develop a New Electronic Product in China. In this second part, we look at R&D and at the evaluation of power consumption. 1. R&D (both in-house & with a manufacturing partner) 1.1 Functional and System Development Research and development involve a lot of work that is typically split between your in-house capabilities (if you employ designers and engineers) and your supplier capabilities. One extreme is a company … [Read more...]
What It Takes to Develop a New Electronic Product in China – Part 1
More and more companies work with a Chinese manufacturing partner to develop a complex new product that includes electronic and mechanical components. We decided to start a new series of articles. It will be based on a fictitious new product. The product concept There are more and more drones, sometimes used for malevolent purposes (checking if an isolated villa can be broken into, etc.). This situation creates a need for a solution to "arrest" a drone without causing safety concerns (no … [Read more...]
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