The Challenges and Pitfalls of Prototyping in Product Development

For many inventors, seeing their ideas come to fruition can be one of life’s greatest thrills. However, if done prematurely, prototyping can also result in an unnecessary expense or even a total waste of money.

Concept-stage prototypes are basically non-functioning “stage props”. Their primary use is to explain the basic idea to fellow collaborators, designers, engineers, illustrators and patent attorneys. In many cases, these initial prototypes can be made of just about anything. Common materials include: wood, cardboard, Styrofoam, modeling clay, or even wads of aluminum foil and duct tape. It really doesn’t matter because they serve only as discussion points when telling “the story”.

Additional prototypes are often required throughout the development process. The total number will usually depend on the complexity of the product and the number of individuals involved in the design phase.  

The last step prior to cutting tools (making molds) and going into production, is creating an operational or pre-production prototype. These are used to verify the final version of the product. These production-grade prototypes can be very expensive, depending on the product but are essential to eliminating problems with the finished product.      

A Sad Example of Wasteful Prototyping

A few years ago, AON Invent did a concept assessment (Step-2) for a brilliant inventor who was an industrial designer by trade. This gentleman was very talented and when we received his sketches, it was obvious that he had spent a great deal of time thinking through the complexities of his product concept.

Unfortunately, our evaluation panel unanimously agreed that his concept was the metaphorical equivalence of a ten-pound solution to a one-pound problem and therefore assessed the invention as “commercially non-viable” – awarding it “2 stars” on our 3-star scale.   

But after reading our assessment, this inventor called to inform us that he had not been completely transparent during our consultation call. He said, “I was hoping you guys could help get my invention to market, but you ended up telling me the same thing I heard from the companies I’ve already shown it to.”

Then he said he wished he would have ordered our $249 assessment seven years ago, before spending nearly half a million dollars on U.S. > and  when he first started working on his invention and before $72,000 on patents for the U.S. and Canada and nearly $400,000 on a prototype, which he then offered to ship to us in a final effort  as a final for reexamination.

It was difficult to give this inventor more bad news, but there was no need to ship his 300lb. prototype halfway across the country. His concept was one that could be evaluated purely based on the net tangible benefit of its intended use, with assumptions that functional design details could easily be addressed in the production-engineering phase – if it had gone that far. In other words, the prototype wasn’t even necessary at this stage. After a short pause, he said, “Then it looks like I’ve wasted half a million dollars and 7 years of my life and now I’m probably going to lose my home.”

Prototyping Strategies at AON Invent

At AON Invent, we understand the importance and proper use of prototyping and the challenges it presents. To mitigate costs and streamline the development process, we utilize our in-house 3D printers. They are great for proof-of-concept prototypes, checking engineering cads and comparing revisions of individual components of a larger assembly.  

The Role of Xometry in Prototyping

When projects require higher quality prototypes than we can do in-house, we depend on Xometry.com.  

Xometry has become an invaluable partner to our engineering team. Whether plastic injection molding, advanced 3D printing, intricate sheet metal or CNC machining, we often refer our customers to Xometry. This saves time and money by our not-having to mark up the prototype and allowing our team to focus on other critical aspects of the project.

Xometry’s website offers a seamless experience where we can upload a file, choose a manufacturing process and material, and usually get a price in a matter of seconds. But just as importantly, it gives AON Invent and our customers the benefit of state-of-the-art rapid prototyping without having to make continuous capital investments to keep up with technological advancements.