AC | Hardware Product Development

Boutique Engineering for Ambitious Products

Innovative, tech-driven companies partner with AC to streamline product development and maximize the chances of a successful product launch. Our sweet spot is solving novel and ambitious technical challenges with well-engineered, high-quality solutions. We specialize in partnering with hardware startups to bring their idea into reality.

Partner with AC to build the right product for your users’ needs and your business objectives. We have in-house expertise to cover your needs for the full depth and breadth of hardware product development. Guided entirely by your product’s success, we identify the right-fit solutions and accelerate your time to market.

AC’s R&D Accelerator Helps De-Risk Early for New Technologies

User & Product Discovery

Defining Your Product’s Critical Path to Success

AC works from the very beginning to understand and define your product design objectives. Our product development engineers invest in strategic conversations to ensure we understand your user, product intent, and business objectives.

We align ourselves with your goals to ensure our team stays laser focused on product delight and value – for your user, your investors, and your business. We adapt quickly as we uncover engineering challenges, overcome supply chain issues, and respond to user feedback to evolve your product and accelerate development.

Product Development Firm

Defining Architecture

De-Risking Core Technologies

Through close collaboration with you, we evaluate technical risk, integrate user studies, and adapt to changing constraints to define your product’s technical requirements. Our expertise ensures your specifications and technology truly align with your user’s needs in a way that is both technically feasible and commercially attractive.

Our thorough approach to product architecture integrates competitive benchmarking, product teardowns, and diverse industry experience to uncover opportunities for differentiation and innovation.

Prior to solidifying the architecture and building fully integrated prototypes, our engineers work to uncover technical, user, and business risks that need to be addressed at a deeper level.

Our de-risking process may include:

> Paper Studies
> Simulation & Modeling
> 3D Printing
> Rapid Prototyping with Dev Kits
> Subsystem Prototyping & Bench Testing

Product Development Firm

Proof of Concept

Mitigating Business, User, & Engineering Concerns

Proof of concept prototypes are intended to mitigate business, user, and engineering concerns through one or more targeted prototypes. To define an effective set of prototypes for your specific needs, we partner closely with you to address crucial, system-level engineering risks.

We build prototypes to address:

> Engineering Risk & Performance
> Functional User Testing
> Investor Demos & Fundraising Milestones

Product Development Firm

Custom Hardware Testing for your New Product Introduction

EVT/DVT/PVT

Moving from Design to Production

We spend substantial energy ensuring the product is well-defined to meet the business requirements and user needs during prototyping which enables greater predictability and success during detailed design.

Our main objective is to evaluate and verify the engineering designs to make any necessary refinements before larger investments are made for tooling and production. Then, we give the manufacturer the opportunity to generate and evaluate their production processes as we transfer designs to them for production at scale.

> Engineering Validation Test
> Design Validation Test
> Production Validation Test

Product Development Firm

Design for Manufacturing

Balancing Design & DFX

AC product development teams engineer products that are currently produced in the tens of millions per year. Our knowledge of design for enterprise-level manufacturing requirements enables our clients to leverage our multidisciplinary approach that considers manufacturability throughout the design process.

We integrate DFX early on and push our manufacturing partners to develop innovative processes, accelerate production ramp, improve product quality, and reduce per unit cost. As the client’s advocate, we mitigate the tension between industrial designers and contract manufacturers to find the best balance between ideal design and premium product manufacturing.

Product Development Firm

Custom Automation for Your Product’s Manufacturing Needs

The AC Technology Sweet Spot

We work on a variety of different types of products. Generally, we’re building a tech product that includes some of these elements. This list below showcases areas where we have proven excellence.

Features, Sensors, and Other Technology Development

> Wireless/Bluetooth/Wi-Fi Product Design for IOT and Connectivity
> Integration of Optics Systems, Displays, Haptics and Sensors
> Motion Detection through IMUs
> Power and Battery Management
> Mechatronic and Mechanism Development

Ruggedized Product Design for Harsh Environments

> Ingress Protection (Water/Dust)
> Design for Drop, Shock, and Vibration
> Extreme Environmental Conditions (Hot/Cold/Pressure)
> Material Selection and Testing for various environmental conditions

AC | Engineering Services

AC | Product Development Tech Talks

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Eli Cox, Business Development Manager

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