Engineering Services

Prototype Development

Prototypes are the means (a) to prove the validity of the design concept and (b) to start immediately to address the practical issues of form-fit-function, performance, manufacturability, compliance, and so on. Time is of the essence here – there’s no point in coming up with a great design if it can’t rapidly be turned into a working prototype.

Creation of a thermal solution prototype consists of close operation by different engineering disciplines. A thermal engineer simulates the thermal system in a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software package to understand airflow and thermal characteristics of the system. We develop several solutions and evaluate them for the best candidate. A mechanical engineer then develops an envelope and structure that holds several elements such as fans, controller, sensors, air filter, connectors and cabling. The electrical engineer develops the circuit and PC board that resides in the mechanical envelope. The software or firmware engineer develops a program to control the thermal environment. A compliance engineer validates the solution for functionality and compliance to industry standards such as safety. While developing a prototype all these players need to work together extremely fast. Any stumble can cause the whole program to be delayed or redone.

DegreeC offers a team of experts in the field that can understand the thermal problem, conceive a solution and create a prototype rapidly.

Fortunately, DegreeC has all the necessary skills and capabilities in-house . . . and, second only to our fundamental abilities in creating thermal solutions for complex problems, we PRIDE ourselves on rapid prototyping. Many of our clients have their own thermal expertise as well as other engineering skills and we don’t take anything away from those capabilities when we observe that thermal and airflow is all we do – we spend day in and day out in this niche engineering space and we’ve literally seen it all.

Our ability to solve the equations of multiple constraints and deliver a working prototype quickly is truly a key value-added for you.  In one actual case, a large and technically accomplished client had struggled with certain thermal issues for six months. We had the first working prototypes in their hands in less than three weeks and rev 2 prototypes, based on their initial reactions, back to them in 72 hours!