Design for manufacture leads to sales growth

Leading diagnostics company Tepnel turned to Hereford based injection moulding company AKI to improve the quality of their allergen testing kits. The original design was a four piece unit that was time consuming to assemble and caused difficulties for the user as well as manufacturing problems. AKI looked at the product from the concept/design stage using Solidworkstm 3D CAD system and applied their “Product Realisation and Optimisation process”. The result was a completely new design which made manufacturing easier, assembly very fast and provided a simple to use product. The new design was a one-piece product that could be made in a range of colours, allowing Tepnel to use the same design, but colour coded, for different test kits. The moulding is in polypropylene, which permits the inclusion of an integrated “living” hinge, and the colours are achieved by masterbatching. The one-piece design made ordering and inventory management simpler, assembly costs much lower, and helped sales increase dramatically.

To find out how AKI can improve your moulding performance 01432 375100 or email sales@aki.co.uk.