Your engineering backlog, handled. DeWys Engineering provides outsourced mechanical engineering and SolidWorks design for manufacturers, machine builders and fabricators. We add capacity when your engineering team is buried, or act as the engineering department you don’t have.
Our design team brings about 60 years of combined experience to machine design, fixtures and tooling, sheet metal and weldments, plastic part design, and production-ready drawings for companies across West Michigan and North America.
Two Ways We Help
Overflow Capacity for Engineering Teams
Your engineers are tied up on one project and another one can’t wait. Hand it to us. We take on complete machine designs, fixture packages and drawing backlogs so your team can stay focused, without the cost of hiring for a temporary peak.
The Engineering Department You Don’t Have
Many small and mid-sized manufacturers run without in-house engineering and rely on customer-supplied CAD. When you need fixtures or tooling, a machine for your own floor, CAD rework to make a part manufacturable, or your own drawings for a part, we’re the engineering group you call.
We Work Like Part of Your Team
When we support an existing engineering group, the goal is simple: the only way your shop floor should be able to tell a drawing came from us is unfamiliar initials in the “drawn by” box.
- Your PDM vault. We regularly connect by VPN and work directly inside customers’ SolidWorks PDM environments.
- Your templates and standards. Your title blocks, part numbering, revision control and drawing conventions, not ours.
- Your schedule. Flexible hours for meetings with teams in other time zones, plus a dedicated video conferencing room for design reviews. On-site work is available for special cases.
Flexible, Transparent Billing
We quote fixed-price projects and work hourly for ongoing support. For new customers, we often set a not-to-exceed budget billed on time and materials. If we finish under budget, you pay only for the hours used. If the scope grows, we stop and talk with you before going over, so there are no surprises on the invoice.
What We Design
- Machines and automated equipment, from concept through complete build packages (automated equipment design)
- Fixtures, workholding and end-of-arm tooling: assembly, machining, media blasting, coating and masking fixtures, plus robotic grippers
- Sheet metal and weldments, from mezzanine stairs and structural steel to formed flashing, with flat patterns, DXF files and cut lists
- Plastic parts for injection molding, vacuum forming and extrusion (more below)
- Industrial products and enclosures, developed from a rough prototype into a manufacturable design
- Agricultural equipment, including orchard sprayers, sapling planters, track systems for farm machinery, and fertilizer equipment for row crops
- Machine guarding and operator safety improvements for existing equipment
- Legacy drawings converted to 3D: we redraw old 2D prints, even scanned paper copies, into SolidWorks models and drawings you own
- Manufacturability rework of customer-supplied CAD that can’t be built as drawn
- Design automation: configurable models driven by Excel design tables, so non-engineers can generate product variations for quoting
- Plant and cell layouts in SolidWorks, with FARO Focus laser scanning to capture as-built conditions
- Data management: part numbering, revision control and SolidWorks PDM workflow setup
Plastic Part Design for Injection Molding and Vacuum Forming
We’ve designed plastic parts for production for years: electronics housings and covers, brackets and mounts, grips and handles, trays and panels. A part can look right in CAD and still be expensive, or impossible, to tool. We design for the process from the first sketch, so your molder or tool shop gets a part they can quote and build without sending it back for engineering changes.
Injection Molded Parts
- Draft on every surface that needs it, and draft-free surfaces kept only where the part’s function requires them
- Even wall thickness, with ribs and bosses sized to limit sink and warp
- Undercuts avoided where possible, and features laid out cleanly for slides and lifters where they can’t be
- Snap fits, fastener bosses and sealing features for enclosures that need to keep water and dust out
- Advanced surfacing for cosmetic and ergonomic shapes
Vacuum Formed and Thermoformed Parts
Trays, covers, guards and panels designed with the draft, corner radii and draw depth the forming process needs, accounting for material thinning in deep corners and leaving room for trimming.
Project Examples
A Complete Machine Design for a Buried Machine Builder
A small machine builder’s only designer was fully committed to another project when a new machine came in. They handed it to us with a napkin sketch, whiteboard notes and a few meetings. We’re designing the entire machine and delivering a complete 3D model, 2D prints and full bill of materials. As they build, we support their redlines in real time and keep the design updated, so they end up with an accurate set of as-built prints that stays with the machine.
Shrinking a 5,000 sq ft Line for Service Parts
A tier-one automotive supplier still owed its OEM customers service parts years after a program ended, but couldn’t justify leaving a 5,000 sq ft automated assembly line set up to build a few thousand parts a year. Their maintenance department had controls and machine-building talent, but no machine designers. We filled that role, condensing the line into a few compact, mostly manual tabletop machines that roll out of storage when a service order comes in. Each machine goes through design reviews with their team and is released with a complete drawing package and bill of materials, so their shop can build and buy without guessing.
Concept Machines and Fixtures for an Aerospace Manufacturer
For a manufacturer of aircraft engine components, we develop equipment concepts to about 25–35% design completion, detailed enough for machine builders to quote accurately. Some builders then have us finish the design. We also design their media blasting, coating and masking fixtures and robotic grippers. Their part geometry is tightly controlled, so instead of routing CAD through approvals, they send us parts to 3D scan and we design the tooling from the scans. Our sister company, Forerunner 3D Printing, then prints much of the workholding.
From Hacked-Together Prototype to Field-Ready Product
A bird-management technology company came to us with a rough proof-of-concept for a laser-based device that keeps birds from nesting on power transmission equipment. We’re developing the full mechanical design, including the weatherproof enclosure and the mounting systems that hang it on transmission towers. As field and utility lab testing reports come back, we refine the housing, brackets and material choices to hold up outdoors for years. Our partners at Magnum Engineering in Grand Rapids handle the electrical engineering, firmware and electronics manufacturing. Together we take a product from mechanical design through electronics and low-volume production.
Redesigning a Machined Box for Injection Molding
An electronics manufacturer was buying an off-the-shelf enclosure, machining it to fit, and conformal-coating every circuit board to protect it from moisture. We’re redesigning the housing as an injection molded part that keeps the original mounting footprint, moves the connectors to a single sealed edge and keeps water out, so the coating step can go away and the cost per unit drops.
Avoiding a New Mold
A customer needed to fit a new display into an existing molded cover, and re-tooling the cover would have cost more than the rest of the update combined. We designed a laser-cut plastic spacer and a stainless bezel that adapt the new display to the existing cover, checked the fit with printed prototypes, and refined the parts to tenths of a millimeter.
Drawings, Analysis and Deliverables
- Fully toleranced 2D drawings with GD&T, linked to the 3D model so they update with design changes
- Complete build packages: 3D models, assemblies, 2D prints and bills of materials
- Redline support and as-built updates during and after the build
- FEA in-house for structural and design validation. When a design needs a Professional Engineer’s stamp or highly specialized analysis, we work with a partner PE firm.
- Photorealistic renderings and line art for marketing, instruction manuals and patent applications
Scanning and Prototyping Under One Roof
When you don’t have CAD for an existing part or machine, we capture it with 3D scanning and reverse engineering. When you need prototypes, fixtures or low-volume parts, Forerunner 3D Printing prints them in the same building. For electronics, we team with Magnum Engineering, a Grand Rapids electrical engineering firm, so a product can be developed mechanically and electrically at the same time.
Who We Work With
- Machine builders and automation integrators who need more design capacity
- Manufacturers, including tier-one and tier-two suppliers, with no engineering group or one that’s stretched thin
- Maintenance departments that need machines, fixtures or spare parts designed
- Metal fabricators that need sheet metal and weldment design
- Companies turning an industrial product prototype into a manufacturable design
- Product companies and plastics processors that need parts designed for molding, forming or extrusion
DeWys Engineering is part of Gambit Works, where you can meet our team. We’re ISO 9001:2015 certified and ITAR registered.
Related Services
- Custom automated machine design: robot cells, assembly machines, nests and end-of-arm tooling
- Sheet metal & weldment design: fabrication-ready enclosures, frames and structural weldments
- Fixture & tooling design: assembly, inspection, weld and laser cutting fixtures and trim tooling
- Commercial product development: taking a product from prototype to manufacturable design
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you work with companies outside West Michigan?
Yes. Most of our customers are in West Michigan, but we work remotely with engineering teams across the country.
Can you provide stamped engineering drawings?
When a design requires a Professional Engineer’s stamp, we coordinate it through our partner PE firm.
Do you design injection molds?
No. We design the plastic part so it’s ready for tooling, with draft, wall thickness and slide and lifter features already worked out, and then support your molder or tool shop while they design and build the mold.
Get Your Project Off the Backlog
Tell us what you need designed, what you have to start from, and when you need it. Call 616-604-1977, email [email protected], or use our contact form.