Part design can take anywhere from 1 day to several weeks. Complex assemblies with tight tolerances can undergo several rounds of design, prototyping, and testing. Once a design is complete, tooling can take another 8-16 weeks. For simple or small parts, options exist to create low-run or modular tooling in as little as 2 weeks.
Questions often asked about injection molding and automation. As always, we are here to answer any other questions you have through the contact form or directly by phone.
What is TQM?
TQM stands for Total Quality Management. TQM is a culture in which everyone from high-level executives to level workers focuses on improving quality. Quality is EVERYONE’S job!
What is quality assurance?
Quality assurance (QA) is any systematic process of determining whether a product or service meets the specified requirement. QA is not the actual act of measuring or monitoring a product, it is the act of ensuring this was done correctly.
How is your customer service better than other companies?
Noble’s first core value is Do What You Say. For customer service, that means that even when something goes wrong, tenacity to seek solutions and communicate options are key. We can’t guarantee that machinery won’t break, deliveries won’t be delayed, or people won’t get sick, but we can guarantee that each order matters to our team and we take seriously our responsibility to keep customers up to date.
What is the future of Product Management?
Managing the evolution of a product will always be needed. Some products come and go, but many must be adapted to current trends and technologies; that is where the product manager comes in. Their role is to understand the marketplace and where the product fits in and how it must be adapted to continue to be relevant.
How do we incorporate robotics?
Noble employs robots in many ways. We use them for work that is complex, but also for quite simple tasks. Depending on the needs of our customers, a robot could be doing very simple repetitive tasks, or working as a central brain to coordinate a number of machines and auxiliaries.
What is the difference between invention and product design?
The term “invention” is usually reserved for some product or process that has not been proven or patented before. Product design can certainly be part of an invention. Design is the process that shapes an idea or concept and brings it to something that is visual or tangible. You really cannot invent something without some sort of design concept. They are terms that are not mutually independent.
How do we go from idea to product?
Knowing the best manufacturing method for a product idea lets a design be optimized for that process. Often the “best” method isn’t dependent on the part itself, but on commercial considerations like the number of parts needed, timeline to realization, and limits on capital to allow for investment in equipment.
What are the steps of the quality assurance cycle?
Noble employs several measurements and verification systems. Parts might be confirmed by process monitoring, automatic camera validation, operator measurements, specialized testing apparatus, gages, and final release from the Quality Control team.
How long does the design process take from beginning to end?
Design processes are highly collaborative, and depending on the number of features, can take just a few or several weeks. With a complete design, specialized tooling and components can take another 4-5 months to build. Product qualification depends on the number of components and assembly steps, taking from 2-5 weeks for complete documentation and acceptance.
