Tech Transfer to Start-up and Manufacturing - Fabrication. Chris Moody

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1 Tech Transfer to Start-up and Manufacturing - Fabrication Chris Moody

2 Fabrication Incubators Business incubators can be just office space with business services and advice or they can provide early manufacturing space and facilities There are a wide range of incubators from those that can manufacture metal or plastic products to those with biomedical labs or electronics/semiconductor fabrication facilities More commonly now, start-ups will use contract prototyping and low volume manufacturing rather than attempt to do this themselves The cost of prototyping and low volume manufacturing has dropped dramatically in the last 10 years due to computer aided design and automated prototype manufacturing

3 Fast Low Cost Prototyping Star Prototype Vacuum Casting Room Star Prototype CNC Model Milling Some companies provide automated laser cutting of complex parts, or low cost conventional automated machining, such as Star Prototype China Limited One of the newest techniques for prototyping and low volume manufacturing uses ink jet type printing technology to build a complex part: 75/desktop-manufacturing.html

4 Other techniques for prototype fabrication include: Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) which uses a laser to selectively melt thin layers of polymer powder to build the part Reaction Injection Moulding which uses low pressure injection moulding of polymer resins in low cost moulds made from silicone, epoxy or aluminium Vacuum Casting which is used to create near production polyurethane components from low cost silicone tools Stereo lithography consists of a vat of liquid resin and an ultra violet laser. Using a 3D CAD file layers are drawn individually onto the surface of a vat of photosensitive liquid resin to build the part For electronic product prototyping, a number of companies offer full design to prototype and manufacture services Similarly, there are one-stop shops for pharmaceutical prototyping and trials as well

5 Starting and Staying Lean Lean manufacturing principles have become standard and anything other than a true lean model will likely be frowned upon by venture capital sources Lean manufacturing reduces start-up costs and risks, eliminates waste, lowers cost, improves quality and shortens cycle time Lean can be local The ideal lean model has a largely local supply chain that is also operating by lean principles Only do those tasks yourself that are either significantly more efficient to do in-house or need to be done within the company to protect valuable trade secrets Lean business practices are not limited to manufacturing, they include all aspects of your business including Engineering, Marketing and Sales (the subject of another seminar )

6 Start-up Fabrication Example: Future Injection Technology, Ltd Offices on The Oxford Science Park Privately Funded Small, experienced and well qualified team Outsourced business model Core competencies are design and development of autoinjectors Agile company focussed on emerging market opportunities

7 Future Injection Technology, Ltd Designed to administer viscous biologics (eg Enbrel) through a fine gauge needle but will also administer:- - Non-viscous formulations - lyophilised formulations Uses standard pre-filled syringes or cartridges Video: curing percy.mod

8 Future Injection Technology, Ltd Fabrication Strategy Lean business model In-house design Will outsource all manufacturing Calculated that it would be less expensive for them to buy a 3D printer prototype machine rather than using outside service providers they needed hundreds of prototype parts, with many design variations to meet specific customer requirements Some of the latest models are quite inexpensive, such as the HP Designjet which is roughly 15K Next step - single cavity injection moulding with manual assembly Ultimately, they will use multi-cavity injection moulding and automated assembly

9 Discussion?