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Our job is to help lift your business - with design, perspective, and insight. One favorite tool is Innovative Thinking, for Engineering Solutions that shine.
Creative Thinking is Power, and a Springboard to Competitive Advantage. Innovative Design Solutions —
Make Products Stand Out
Improve Process Efficiency
Elevate Engineering Performance
Our job is to help lift your business - with design, perspective, and Innovative Thinking.
With creative thinking, there are no limits to where you can go. Sure, we can think big, but that's not usually where the greatest opportunities lay. The power of Innovative Design is greatest when it solves problems quickly, when it improves function, when gets products to market faster, and when it scores efficiency.
For more than 25 years Synthesis is creating innovative design solutions. We do it in product development, and in engineering consulting — demonstrated by the many patents we have helped customers achieve. Creative thinking is just one way we help build your success. We know how competitive it can get, and how thin the margins can be. We also know how hard it is to compete against true innovation. So, Be the Innovator – That's Power, and we can help.
As a reflection of innovative design, Synthesis has contributed to this Long List of Patents in our quest to assist customers. That’s great evidence that we mean what we say "We Bring Innovative Design". And, the list covers a broad spectrum of industries.
Then, for an indepth look, please jump to the Case Studies library. Or, if you’re in for the quick version, here are some examples of work that made innovative strides for our clients.
The Challenge:
Create a bicycle suspension fork weighing 1 kg (when typical forks weigh 2 - 3 kg).
The Solution:
Through innovative design and optimizing the material, the team successfully engineered the lightest weight hydraulic fork in the world. The same year, it was then successfully raced to a USAC Mountain Bike Marathon National Championship win.
It did not quite get to 1kg, but 1.1kg is still the lightest.
Talking about both the race specific performance and the lightweight design, one racer stated, “This is the best race fork ever!”
The Challenge:
Transform the incomplete CGI designs (from the movies) that don’t play nice with the laws of physics into toys that will actually fly.
The Solution:
With the team of engineers and designers, we found creative ways to finesse the original concepts into flying toys. The final product had to fly, and they had to be manufacturable, and of course, we had to preserve the original artistic intent.
To the delight of 8-year olds everywhere, the Naboo Starfighter and Trade Federation Battleship (and others) not only look cool, they actually fly!
The Challenge:
Design a simple mold for a complex duct of a military aircraft with no slides or extra mold inserts. Make the trim fixtures too.
The Solution:
A creative mold split and a very small (0.020”) approved deviation were the tricks to success. The split was complex, for sure, but simple CNC mold machining made it work perfectly.
The trim tools to hold the part with no flat or straight points to register were tricky as well.
Like an athlete whose perfect throw appear effortless, this design and work disguises the imaginative effort.
The Challenge:
How do you reliably, cleanly, consistently put a thread on the end of a flexible plastic pipe (to be used as a long, flexible, lightweight bolt)?
The Solution:
Using plastic tube as the fastener for this flexible application is the first bit of innovative design thinking.
Creating the nifty little tool to tame the end, and thread them quickly and precisely - is the second. MJF (3D printing) brings the whole thing together in just over a week. A deceptively simple total solution. Deceptive, because the shiny metal rod, and a super clever clamp (not shown) are the tricks that make it work.
The Challenge:
We need a simple and quick way to comparatively measure the twist occurring in various long semi-truck trailer frames.
The Solution:
The answer is conduit (siff, light, and cheap) through a 2x4, clamped to the trailer frame. The split plastic sleeves hold in place, but twist in the trailer frame will move them. With sets in multiple directions, a short run makes it easy to see and measure frame twist.
Oh, and it does not care about debris flung by the tires.
As a comparative measure, a 5 minute setup on each trailer makes it easy to see which trailer design is stiffer, and quantify it. Simple, and works perfect.
The Challenge:
In a tight space, at the heart of a production machine, create a press to simultaneously push from 4 quadrants, while moving product through the center.
The Solution:
Of course, the full workings are confidential, but this photo of a portion of the press shows the tight and complex nature of the design. Load balancing is key, so a lot of effort went into spring choices, leverage ratios, and component placement.
Unfortunately, we can't show the internals where the true innovative design resides, but we can say this project stretched our minds. A lot of creative thinking in in there to accomplish the task with the desired speed in the available space.
These are just a few examples showing how creative thinking brought about innovative design for the success of our customers. For more examples of Innovative Design, and other Creative Solutions, visit the Portfolio Page. There we have many more fun images of past projects.
Technically, "Innovative Design" is not an Engineering Service, rather an Attribute of the mind. We approach each project seeking solutions to achieve goals – Creativity and Innovation are just in the mix as part of the process. It's who we are.
Seasoned expertise from years of design on hundreds of projects.
A broad spectrum of experience from a variety of industries.
The advantage of long trained innovative design thinking.
Idea cross-pollination, mutating ideas of other industry solutions.
How far we take it is up to you. Synthesis can help from first sketch - to CAD - prototypes - testing - all the way to production launch if you want.
These are examples of the right time to find innovative design:
We're here when you are ready to break the box and make something truly beautiful happen. Come see what the Synthesis flavor of solutions oriented, innovative design engineering can do for you.
Our work has yielded many patents, so we're not kidding when we claim creative thinking and innovative design. These are much more than just fluffy marketing words to us. We have asked many times if you can train yourself to become more creative? While we don't know the answer, we do know true innovative design is both everywhere, and rare.
Where does innovation come in handy? Certainly it works hand in hand with Product Design and Development. It also comes in handy with Engineering Consulting. We invite you to take advantage. It's a hallmark of desirable products.
Drop us a line and tell us what has you searching. We're happy to listen, to talk about solutions, then, if you wish, find the innovative design ideas geared to your success.