Concept Development Model
Sometimes the best engineering is no engineering at all…

For all the hype that easy to use finite element packages receive and for all the engineering concept development toolbox calculators that can be downloaded or used on the web – it’s important not to lose sight of the big picture and consider the use of concept development models. The big picture goal is to develop products quickly and efficiently while managing development risks, real or perceived. Further more it is important to uncover unknowns early in the concept development process.

One of the best ways to do this is to build simple concept development models or breadboards (also known as proof of concept models or proof of principle models). Given the choice of spending weeks or months developing sophisticated theoretical models or hours or days testing a concept development model the choice is self evident.

Now let’s be clear – not every project or concept is a candidate for “build early build often”, but it has its place. Sometimes it is not a viable option based on the time or expense to build. Sometimes the end product is of such a scale that it is impractical to build concept development models – (think space shuttle). Never the less for many projects it is a great choice and even for the space shuttle there are numerous subsystems for which concept models are appropriate.

Pictured on this page is simple humidifier concept development model. Our client asked us to explore ways to develop a top fill humidifier. We were able to quickly and inexpensively validate our performance assumptions by simply modifying some existing humidifier parts in our shop. This was actually the second concept development model we made during this project. The first model utilized a cut 2 liter soda bottle and a tub of water. Admittedly we were not doing space shuttle type work here but developing a top fill humidifier has been a long standing challenge in this category. Designing and fabricating rapid concept development models saves significant time and dollars and allowed the team to confidently test concepts with consumer within 4 weeks of project start.

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