Consulting and Creative Services

Consultation

It is not unusual for us to service a client that only needs advise.  Plastic Plus has a combined knowledge base of nearly sixty years.   After twenty years in business we've been involved with many different products.   We've done research and development for materials and products that are now part of missile systems. We've assisted in developing a canopy for super efficient, three wheeled vehicle.  We've experimented with new materials to determine it's suitability for particular applications and redesigned products for longer life spans for the military.  We are available for consultation situations where we know we will not be involved with the production of the end product. In these cases we work from a consulting contract.

A case study in product development.

This customer knew that this product was not patentable as there were other devices similar in nature.  Their product was designed for a specific car; so their intent was to capture that particular market with a high grade solution.  There was no need for a nondisclosure agreement, but if you are on the other side of the fence and need a nondisclosure agreement before talking to us, we welcome you to use our standard confidentiality agreement.  This contract has been scrutinized by attorneys from several customers and our own attorneys, therefore it is very thorough and protects your ideas.  We urge you not to call upon us without an agreement, as you must be able to talk about your product idea as freely as possible to develop the concept.

Our customer had a concept for a ram-air filter device that increased horse power, performance and fuel economy for a particular make of car.  This customer actually had a lot of the leg work done before coming to us.  They had already determined a suitable material and had made a rough prototype.  However we were not able to use their rough prototype to built a working prototype, as the design was incomplete.  We were first contracted to design and draft drawings for the product to work out all of the design and structural elements before actually investing in the working prototype.

After several drawing revisions we were able to complete the drawing set with an isometric view which the customer was able to better understand that the plan view drawings. Between scheduling appointments and drawing revisions the time period to complete the preproduction work was about two weeks.   With their approval we were able to move onto the prototype stage.

Because the drawings were so thorough, we were able to complete a portion of the tooling required for the production phase of the project.  Some of the components were still handmade just in case modifications were required.  As this customer already had the product marketing in place we could make some of the tooling.  However if the marketing is not in place for your project we would normally not make any tooling as this can be an expensive investment to make in some cases.   At this point we were up to about 3 weeks from our initial meeting.  This is a very typical time table for a simple product such as this one.

The prototype was completed, but you'll notice that one feature was added - the saddle for the filter. It was discovered through the prototype that this element was required to keep the filter in place during use. At this point the ram-air prototype was in the customer's hands. They needed to do an actual installation in the car to check fit and performance.   They spent several days completing this stage and determined that the working prototype satisfied all of their expectations.


Having completed the prototype and all of the testing, it was time to go into the production phase.  This product required routing jigs and bending and assembly fixtures.  The tooling was accomplished in a matter of days and we were on our way to running the first 100 units.  Our customer expected that the market might absorb up to 500 units and this quantity is typical for the majority of our inventor type customers.  However they were surprised to find the market was much bigger than they anticipated and they quickly grew beyond their comfort level.  They choose to sell their new found business to a competitor that understood the our customer's product was superior to their own.  Although the buyer was on the other side of the country, they choose to keep us as the sole manufacturer of the product.  More than 1500 units later this new customer is still ordering the units from Plastic Plus.

The photo to the left is of the the final design.  Simple design and high function... a winning combination for this customer!