Prototyping Ideas & Inventions

Concept prototypes can be presented to industry to help persuade them of the potential benefits of the idea and help secure investment. However they can also be quite expensive so you need to consider what you actually need the prototype for. Often our design work and presentation material is enough to convey the idea to interested parties.

There are three main categories of prototype:

1. Proof of principle: A prototype that simply proves that a particularly new system or mechanism works. Often it is just part of the overall idea and it does not need to look like the final product.

2. Aesthetic model: A prototype that looks like the final product but is not fully functional.

3. Pre-production prototype: If you are taking your idea into production yourself then you may require a pre-production prototype that looks, feels and works like the final product. This type of prototype can be produced to mimic how it would actually be manufactured to check that everything will fit together correctly.

Innovate has built a variety of prototypes including: a small electronic product for outdoor use, a stainless steel kitchen device, a locker with rotating transparent door and a rucsac with robot head for the Disney production "Meet the Robinsons."

We use rapid prototyping in SLS, SLA and FDM for smaller products which allows a real 3D model to be built from the CAD file. Larger models can be fibreglass, vacuum formed or machined.