We’re in the middle of updating our website and whilst sorting through images (we started with over 6000 – eek) I came across these photos of a prototype bag for a highly technical mechanism we made a few years ago. I seem to remember that after we’d finished it and were examining it to check the quality we decided it looked like the kind of animal you might find in a fossil or at the bottom of the sea. It seemed a shame not to record it and now to share it.
Making is at the heart of all projects at Thread. We prototype to explore, develop, test, communicate and sell ideas, concepts and products. This important with all design projects, and is especially important with textiles.
Our prototyping studio is well equipped with industrial sewing machines, bonding presses, cutting presses, seam sealing machines, and rolls and rolls of fabrics with which we can make almost anything out of textiles.
In our prototyping workshop and lab, we 3d print assemble mechanical parts of products, test rigs and jigs.
Creatively prototypes are used to explore and build on ideas, we use anything that’s to hand to communicate and test. We call these kinds of prototypes lash-ups or if we’re making a garment, we might call it a toile.
In development, prototypes are important milestones where we can test our ideas. A stake in the ground where we demonstrate our thinking, and learn about our designs. We test their performance, we use them to demonstrate progress, and you can use them to show stakeholders and get buy in.
Iteratively developing a design, we improve, and hone a concept into a product that is ready to manufacture.
We use samples and prototypes to communication the construction, and the quality required to manufacturers. This, along with a specification is how we ensure the most efficient transition a manufactured product.
Get in touch if you need a prototype made, or want to know more:
Thread developed and prototyped the carry bag of the TacSat Razor Antenna during development. The mechanism that deploys the antenna is wonderful (it delighted us geeks here at Thread) and the tight tolerances on the mechanism meant the bag had to be extremely tightly toleranced too. This sounds simple but ‘hard’ prototypers talk about tolerances of +/- 0.1mm whereas textiles tend to be on more of a +/- 5mm tolerance scale. A tricky interface!
Website link: Selex ES, Press Release, 7th May 2014
Website link: TacSat Razor deployment demonstration
It’s always pleasing when a product we’ve worked on reaches the market. Thread undertook Design for Manufacture refinement and manufacturing samples for Harry & Jack’s. This is a product that brought a smile to our faces. I think we’re probably all too old and big to have a jet pack rucksack now though…….aren’t we?
Website link: Harry & Jack’s – Adventure Packs™