Component Design
At Forefront Engineering we have many years of experience behind us, which we use to design and manufacture quality, tailor-made parts and components exactly to our customers requirements.
If you have an engineering related problem, we can apply our knowledge and know-how to troubleshoot the issue at hand and come up with a professional solution. Using our 3D modelling software, we can test the parts in a simulation before any physical parts are machined. Below are a few examples of such bespoke components we have produced for our satisfied customers:
Fuel Filler Clips
This clip was designed for one of our customers, it is now in full production and used on one of the worlds leading off road vehicles. The clip is part of a fuel filler system, so once assembled it had to remain closed regardless of the attitude of the load applied by the flexing tubes. To keep tooling investment to a minimum the mould for this tool had to be kept as simple as possible. We produced a design that had a positive lock in all directions and only required a simple 2 piece mould. Through close collaboration with the vehicle manufacturer's designers and engineers and with the customers engineers and purchasing department, we achieved a design that both met the stringent tests of the manufacturer and all the requirements of our customer.
Sharps Safe
This product was designed to enable the safe disposal of used syringes and hypodermic needles. The product was injection moulded plastic with a welded top.
The lid was designed to be temporarily opened and closed, then, once full the lid could be pressed in to make it permanently locked.
Our customer now owns the patent for this unique lid design that we produced.
15 Pin Connector
This product was already in production, our customer wanted a cost reduction, we changed the design and it is now made using rolled steel sheets instead of solid machined pins. These rolled steel parts were designed to enable quick and secure assembly.
Plastic Bracket
This product was designed to replace 3 separate steel brackets.
This single part reduced the number of brackets by having a common part that could support 3 different vehicle configurations.
Combining the 3 steel parts into 1 plastic part gave a cost and weight reduction.
Engineering Design
We have vast experience in many aspects of the engineering field.
Forming plastic pipe has been our core business. When the term "full service supplier" was still being used we performed onsite design work for our customers. Being on site allowed us to package our customers systems in a way that suited the OEM but also made the design suitable for high volume production. Being the tool designers this gave an advantage for our customer over their competitors as we designed the assemblies to suit our customers chosen manufacturing process.
Packaging
We have carried out many packaging studies and taken part in design teams, packaging teams and launch teams. Working on-site on behalf of our customers to ensure the optimum design solution and ease of manufacture.
3D Solid Modelling
Although it seems obvious for an engineering company to have skills in 3D solid modelling we have found over time that this is not always the case. We have received many solid models from various sources, some are made using bad practices and others are a robust model, but are simply not possible to machine or not practical or suitable for the design intent. Here at Forefront Engineering 3D CAD packages are a tool to be used to design a component or a machine to service a requirement.
2D Drawings
A 2D drawing is the best way to have traceability of a design intent. We have supplied many 2D drawings with full GDT, this ensures design intent and enables the quality department to ensure that parts meet the required specifications and engineering directives.