Choosing the Right Mechanical Design Company

There are hundreds of machine shops that focus on rubber and plastic parts in the United States alone. Sorting between them in order to find the one that best fits your needs can be a struggle. You need a facility that offers experienced engineers offering mechanical design services who can help you scale from a small prototype run to full production without the hassle of handling your own tooling or the guess-and-check of ongoing testing of small parts in complex products.

Engineering Tools and Materials

Finding the right materials for your components whether they’re housings or gaskets, requires knowledge of both the operating temperatures where they will be installed as well as the need for protection from corrosion, moisture, and abrasion. For example, polyethylene variants are often used in applications where chemical damage could cause component failure. ABS plastics are great options for electronics enclosures because of their durability. Echo Supply has a number of options among materials, including:

• LDPE (Low Density PE)

• PP (PolyPropylene)

• HDPE (High Density PE)

• Nylon (PA, PA6, PA66)

• PC (Polycarbonate)

• Acrylic

• PPS (Polyphenylene Sulfide)

• Acetal (Delrin/POM)

• ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene)

• UL Yellow Card Materials

• PlexiGlas/AltuGlas

• Dow/Sabic/Solvay/BASF/DuPont

We also offer a full line of rubber parts for gaskets, including natural rubber, silicone, neoprene, and others. In those cases, we can offer you injection and compression molding, over-molding, and even extrusion.

These are similar to our services for plastic components, however, they also include lathe cutting, die-cut, texturing customization, and many others. When you are searching for the right mechanical design services firm, keep in mind that the more processes available, the better chance you have to find a cost-effective solution to part production that fits the requirements that you set for it.

CAD Services and Prototyping

While there may always be things to iron out in the production process, rapid prototyping via computer-aided design and modeling is one way to prevent any hassles that will require re-tooling. Our mechanical design services team uses the latest software to help you visualize your parts and how they will fit into an overall system well before even the first piece of extruded plastic or synthetic rubber moves through our tooling.

By doing so, you can gain several key advantages:

1. You can gauge tolerance and fitment issues prior to production;

2. Tooling for larger-scale production can be estimated and budgeted for;

3. Small changes for interoperability or simplified manufacturing can be made; and

4. You don’t have to pay for even the smallest batch.

We have experience working on some of the most delicate applications on the market, ranging from electronics to components that reduce noise, vibration and harshness (NVH). The latter requires careful planning to reduce noise within the cockpit of a vehicle. Our ability to work with clients to maintain the intricate details to do so has been a hallmark of our operation for four decades.

Production Processes and Product Design

Our full-service mechanical design services facility offers precision manufacturing using a number of different processes. Many people are aware of injection molding and compression molding. The former allows for more intricate forms to be made and rapid switching. This is particularly important if your component needs to be in different colors or materials for testing or if you are still in the early stages of testing. Compression molding, which allows for increased production rates for less-complex designs.

Echo Engineering also can help with assemblies, seam welding and over molding, which we use with success to create plastic covers and lenses, housings and a wide variety of clips, fasteners and caps. From tiny pieces to larger components, we can design the parts that you need from lighting to finishing, electronics masking to even needs within the heavy machinery industry.

Contact Us Today

Echo Engineering has been in business for more than 50 years, helping companies of all sizes create the custom components that

If you’re interested in learning more about how to make your component or masking project a success, get a custom quote. Our team will connect you with an experienced representative and an engineer to go over your specifications and technical requirements.