Your budget seems a bit thin to me; a factor of 100x might be more realistic. Assuming an engineer bills out at $150/hr, your budget barely covers two days of work, which seems highly unrealistic to "create a proof-of-concept prototype."

I presume your budget also covers the fabrication, which eats into the hours for engineering.

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Any more details?

Like material, size, complexity, moving parts? Pressure retaining?

Do you have detailed drawings, plans, a way to manufacture this or do you expect someone else to figure this out?

If the latter, then $2,600 is way too low.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

Quote:

create a proof-of-concept prototype for my invention

I think that is the answer to that question; if drawings existed, then it would be to "build" and not "create"

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Quote (LittleInch)

Like material, size, complexity, moving parts? Pressure retaining?

Do you have detailed drawings, plans, a way to manufacture this or do you expect someone else to figure this out?

Yes, I have the sketch, but not a 3D drawing. I expect someone to do 3D drawing and prototyping for me.
It is a relatively simple consumer product, there’s no complexity behind it like moving parts, electronics or any of that sort.

Quote (IRstuff)

a factor of 100x might be more realistic.

a factor of 100x is high. I would have my product manufactured with this kind of money on a small scale. I assume because you are in the aerospace industry, it would take higher capital and engineers are generally paid a lot higher to create a prototype. This is just a simple small 15-30 cm long, 5 cm width prototype.

"Go big or go home"

A single plastic mold likely costs your entire budget.

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Try talking to a university and see if one of the students will print this for you on a 3D printer? Or as part of a final year project.

Universities often have links to prototype companies or R&D types.

Or a lowly paid PhD student.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

Put it this way. The cheapest tool I ever had made was a die for extruding aluminium shells, maybe 50x25x50 mm. That cost $2000 in 1995. An injection molding tool is vastly more complex than an extrusion die.

Can you post a link to an existng product that is vaguely similar in terms of complexity and function to what you are looking at?

Cheers

Greg Locock


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$150/hr is mid to low end for a billing rate for any industry for an engineer. I can barely design a couple of beams and produce a sketch for $2k, and that's not innovating some new invention. We've been designing beams for a few hundred years now.

If this is a really good idea, you might convince someone to take a share of ownership in the patent. But $2600 just won't cut it. Not for a reputable company.

"You may not always get what you pay for, but you'll never get what you don't pay for."

Sounds like you need to learn Fusion 360 and then find someone cheap to 3d print a scaled down version that you can see if the concept works. There are many consumer grade printers on the market you could use for proof of concept. My business partner bought a resin printer and can make quite decent prints. The vase circled below was printed on a resin printer.

Quote (IRstuff)

You’re right. I get this now. Thanks for your outright answer

Quote (LittleInch)

Thanks, I’ll try universities. But it’s just a 3D drawing for now.

Quote (GregLocock)

Here it is: https://www.amazon.com/OXO-Grips-Collection-All-Pu...

Quote (phamENG)

Beams are large structural designs; of course, their design will take hours.

Quote (Brad805)

Nice! Good suggestion too!

I am not a mechanical or structural engineer, so it is better to leave this work to those engineers. Thank you. I now have a better idea of the costs.

...I can design a beam in 5 minutes.

Your part does not sound that complex. I doubt there are few new products that evolved into companies where the entrepreneur did not need to learn new things. We know little about your part, but most evolve from a current product. A lot can be learned by looking how those are made, and gain expertise from them. I suggested Fusion 360 because you can use that for free until this is a functional business. It is easy to convert those sketches into something you can discuss with someone that might help.

By in large, engineers are problem solvers. The better you define your problem, the quicker they can help solve your problem. Take Pham's beam. If you bring him a sketch with the beam span defined, materials, and the loads, he will solve that problem in very short order. Now most of us have clients that show up and ask us to design a beam in whatever room they have. In that case, it takes a great deal of work to track down the basic information we need. As a result, it costs 10 times more. The effort you put forward will pay for itself tenfold. People find me occasionally to build things for them on my CNC. Some have complained about the cost and I have to explain that before I could do the work they wanted I had to solve a puzzle. Puzzle solving takes time, and costs money in the business world.

Is it a steel thing
Is it an aluminium thing
Is it a ceramic thing
Is it a glass thing
Is it a plastic thing
Or does it even matter for prototyping purposes?

... you haven't told us this one very basic thing which establishes whether you need to talk to someone with a 3D printer (which will result in an object made of plastic - and low-quality, not very strong, not very temperature-resistant), or perhaps some other capability.

Quote:

It is a relatively simple consumer product, there’s no complexity behind it like moving parts, electronics or any of that sort.

Given the above, I'd guess plastic of some sort

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No moving parts, no electronics, 15-30cm long, 5cm wide.
So whittle it out of wood yourself. Or get a chunk of steel and go at it with hacksaw and file.
"Proof of concept" implies that it does something, but it's questionable if it really will do that thing?