From rough prototype to a product you can manufacture. DeWys Engineering provides product development engineering for commercial and industrial products. We take a proof of concept, a hand-built prototype or an existing design that needs work, and engineer it into a product that survives real-world use and can be built at a sensible cost.
We handle the mechanical engineering. For electronics, we team with Magnum Engineering in Grand Rapids. When 3D printing is the right way to make a part, our sister company Forerunner 3D Printing can produce it in the same building.
What We Bring to a Product
- Engineering a proof of concept: turning a working idea into a design that holds up in the field, in the elements and over years of use
- Design for manufacturing: sheet metal, stamping, castings, injection molding, machined parts and 3D printed production parts, designed so your supplier can quote and build them without engineering changes
- Enclosures and mounting: weather-resistant housings, brackets and mounting systems for equipment that has to live outdoors
- Validation: FEA on critical parts, plus printed prototypes for fit and function checks before you buy tooling
- Production support: complete prints and bills of materials, answers for your suppliers, and design updates as testing comes back
Product Development Engineering Projects
A Field-Ready Device for Protecting Utility Equipment
Birds nesting on electrical transformers and transmission equipment can short the equipment, knock out power and even start fires. A company developing a device to keep birds off this equipment came to us with a rough proof of concept they had built themselves. We engineered the product around it: a weatherproof enclosure and the mounting systems that attach it to transmission towers and utility poles, while our partners at Magnum Engineering redesigned the electronics. As field and utility lab testing comes back, we refine the design for years of outdoor service.
A 3D Printed Production Housing for a Wearable Sensor
A West Michigan startup developing a compact wearable motion sensor for athletes, coaches and clinicians needed a housing for its electronics: small, light and tough, with a lid the user can open to change the battery. We designed the top and bottom shells and the battery-access lid around their circuit board, then tuned the lid fit through several printed runs, adjusting by a few thousandths of an inch until it snapped securely closed but still opened easily.
Because the housing was designed for additive manufacturing from the start, there was no mold to buy and no minimum order to meet. Forerunner 3D Printing prints and dyes the parts, and the startup moved straight from prototypes into production, with repeat orders as sales grew.
Commercial Offset Smoker, From Idea to Series Production
A serious barbecue hobbyist wasn’t happy with any of the offset smokers on the market, so he set out to design his own, both for himself and to sell to restaurants, food trucks and other barbecue businesses. We built his ideas and feedback into an offset smoker designed around a large propane tank, then delivered 3D models, a complete 2D print package and a bill of materials. He used that package to quote metal fabricators and pick the best fit for series production, and he now sells the smokers to restaurants, food trucks and serious backyard cooks.
Retail Display Fixtures for a Fixture Manufacturer
Harbor Industries had designed, maintained and produced a tobacco merchandising fixture for many years, the kind of shelving you see behind the counter at convenience stores, drug stores and big box stores. When they set out to redesign it around feedback from their retail partners, their team had the ideas and the prototyping covered, and brought us in for the heavy-lift engineering and CAD work.
The fixture combines a fabricated steel weldment base, formed sheet metal shelving, and injection molded clear trays with spring-loaded pushers that keep product indexed to the front of the shelf. We ran structural analysis and FEA so the shelves wouldn’t sag or fail fully loaded, designed the trays for injection molding, and designed the spring-loaded and hinged mechanisms that open, flip and move.
More Product Engineering
Our Product Development Process
- Start from what you have. A sketch, a proof of concept or an existing product that needs to be improved or made cheaper to build.
- Research. Materials, manufacturing processes and purchased components that fit your volumes and budget.
- Concept design and rough prototype. A 3D concept in SolidWorks, often with a quick printed prototype so you can hold it and test it.
- Detailed design. A full design for the manufacturing processes you’ll use, with FEA where strength matters.
- Functional prototype and testing. Build, test and refine before money goes into tooling.
- Production support. Prints, bills of materials and tooling reviews with your molder, fabricator or printer, and design updates as production starts.
Manufacturing Methods We Design For
- Sheet metal fabrication and stamping
- Castings, including parts redrawn from legacy prints
- Injection molded and vacuum formed plastics (see plastic part design)
- 3D printed production parts through Forerunner 3D Printing
- Machined parts and weldments
- Electronics with our partners at Magnum Engineering
Related Services
- 3D scanning & reverse engineering: capturing existing parts and assemblies as editable CAD
- Outsourced mechanical engineering: extra design capacity for your engineering team
- Design for additive manufacturing: parts, tooling and fixtures engineered for 3D printing
- Sheet metal & weldment design: fabrication-ready enclosures, frames and structural weldments
DeWys Engineering is part of Gambit Works. We’re ISO 9001:2015 certified and ITAR registered.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you work with individual inventors?
Yes, when the product is a good fit for our engineering and has a clear path to production. We’ll talk through your idea and be straight with you about what it will take.
Will you sign an NDA?
Yes. Most of our product development work is confidential, and we sign NDAs before discussing details.
Do you do electrical engineering?
We partner with Magnum Engineering in Grand Rapids for electrical engineering, firmware and electronics manufacturing, and develop the mechanical and electrical sides together.
Can you manufacture the product?
We design for your manufacturer and support them through production. If you don’t already have a manufacturer for your industry or the process your product needs, we keep relationships with a large network of fabricators, molders, machine shops and other manufacturers, and can introduce you directly to the right partner once development is done. For 3D printed parts, our sister company Forerunner 3D Printing can produce them in-house.
Start Your Product Development Project
Tell us about your product, what stage it’s at and where you want to take it. Call 616-604-1977, email [email protected], or use our contact form.